are domestic in both countries. That some of these, in some
parts of America, have become less than their original stock, is
doubtless true; and the reason is very obvious. In a thinly-peopled
country, the spontaneous productions of the forests, and
waste fields, are sufficient to support indifferently the domestic
animals of the farmer, with a very little aid from him, in the severest
and scarcest season. He therefore finds it more convenient
to receive them from the hand of nature in that indifferent
state, than to keep up their size by a care and nourishment
which would cost him much labor. If, on this low fare, these
animals dwindle, it is no more than they do in those parts of
Europe where the poverty of the soil, or the poverty of the owner,
reduces them to the same scanty subsistence. It is the uniform
effect of one and the same cause, whether acting on this or that
side of the globe. It would be erring, therefore, against this rule
of philosophy, which teaches us to ascribe like effects to like
causes, should we impute this diminution of size in America to
any imbecility or want of uniformity in the operations of nature.
It may be affirmed with truth, that, in those countries, and with
those individuals in America, where necessity or curiosity has
produced equal attention, as in Europe, to the nourishment of
animals, the horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, of the one continent
are as large as those of the other. There are particular instances,
well attested, where individuals of this country have imported
good breeders from England, and have improved their size by
care in the course of some years. To make a fair comparison
between the two countries, it will not answer to bring together
animals of what might be deemed the middle or ordinary size of
then species; because an error in judging of that middle or ordinary
size, would vary the result of the comparison. Thus Mons.
D'Aubenton[27] considers a horse of 4 feet five inches high and
400 lb. weight French, equal to 4 feet 8.6 inches and 436 lb.
English, as a middle-sized horse. Such a one is deemed a small
horse in America. The extremes must therefore be resorted to.
The same anatomist[28] dissected a horse of 5 feet 9 inches height,
French measure, equal to 6 feet 1.7 English. This is near 6
inches higher than any horse I have seen; and could it be supposed
that I had seen the largest horses in America, the conclusion
would be, that ours have diminished, or that we have bred
from a smaller stock. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, where
the climate is favorable to the production of grass, bullocks have
been slaughtered which weighed 2,500, 2,200, and 2,100 lbs.
nett; and those of 1,800 lbs. have been frequent. I have seen
a hog[29] weigh 1,050 lbs. after the blood, bowels, and hair had
been taken from him. Before he was killed, an attempt was
made to weigh him with a pair of steel yards, graduated to
1,200 lbs., but he weighed more. Yet this hog was probably
not within fifty generations of the European stock. I am well informed
of another which weighed 1,100 lbs. gross. Asses have been
still more neglected than any other domestic animal in America.
They are neither fed or housed in the most rigorous season of
the year. Yet they are larger than those measured by Mons.
D'Aubenton,[30] of 3 feet 7¼ inches, 3 feet 4 inches, and 3 feet
2½ inches, the latter weighing only 215.8 lbs. These sizes, I
suppose, have been produced by the same negligence in Europe,
which has produced a like diminution here. Where care
has been taken of them on that side of the water, they have
been raised to a size bordering on that of the horse; not by the
_heat_ and _dryness_ of the climate, but by good food and shelter.
Goats have been also much neglected in America. Yet they are
very prolific here, bearing twice or three times a year, and from
one to five kids at a birth. Mons. de Buffon has been sensible
of a difference in this circumstance in favor of America.[31] But
what are their greatest weights, I cannot say. A large sheep
here weighs 100 lbs. I observe Mons. D'Aubenton calls a ram
of 62 lbs. one of the middle size.[32] But to say what are the extremes
of growth in these and the other domestic animals of
America, would require information of which no one individual
is possessed. The weights actually known and stated in the
third table preceding will suffice to show, that we may conclude
on probable grounds, that, with equal food and care, the climate
of America will preserve the races of domestic animals as large
as the European stock from which they are derived; and, consequently,
that the third member of Mons. de Buffon's assertion
that the domestic animals are subject to degeneration from the
climate of America, is as probably wrong as the first and second
were certainly so.
That the last part of it is erroneous, which affirms that the
species of American quadrupeds are comparatively few, is evident
from the tables taken together. By these it appears that there
are an hundred species aboriginal in America. Mons. de Buffon
supposes about double that number existing on the whole earth.[33]
Of these Europe, Asia, and Africa, furnish suppose one hundred
and twenty-six; that is, the twenty-six common to Europe and
America, and about one hundred which are not in America at
all. The American species, then, are to those of the rest of the
earth, as one hundred to one hundred and twenty-six, or four to
five. But the residue of the earth being double the extent of
America, the exact proportion would have been but as four to eight.
Hitherto I have considered this hypothesis as applied to brute
animals only, and not in its extension to the man of America,
whether aboriginal or transplanted. It is the opinion of Mons.
de Buffon that the former furnishes no exception to it.[34]
"Quoique le sauvage du nouveau monde soit à peu près de
même stature que l'homme de notre monde, cela ne suffit pas
pour qu'il puisse faire une exception au fait général du
rapetissement de la nature vivante dans tout ce continent; le
sauvage est foible et petit par les organes de la génération;
il n'a ni poil, ni barbe, and nulle ardeur pour sa femelle.
Quoique plus léger que l'Européen, parce qu'il a plus d'habitude
à courir, il est cependant beaucoup moins fort de corps; il
est aussi bien moins sensible, et cependant plus craintif et
plus lâche; il n'a nulle vivacité, nulle activité dans l'ame;
celle du corps est moins un exercise, un mouvement volontaire
qu'une nécessité d'action causée par le besoin; ôtez lui la faim
et la soif, vous détruirez en même tems le principe actif de
tous ses mouvemens; il demeurera stupidement en repos sur ses
jambes ou couché pendant des jours entiers. Il ne faut pas aller
chercher plus loin à cause de la vie dispersée des sauvages
et de leur éloignement pour la société; la plus précieuse
étincelle du feu de la nature leur a été refusée; ils manquent
d'ardeur pour leur femelle, et par consequent d'amour pour
leur semblables; ne connoissant pas l'attachment le plus vif,
le plus tendre de tous, leurs autres sentimens de ce genre,
sont froids et languissans; ils aiment foiblement leurs pères
et leurs enfans; la société la plus intime de toutes, celle
de la même famille, n'a donc chez eux que de foibles liens;
la société d'une famille à l'autre n'en a point de tout; dès
lors nulle réunion, nulle république, nulle état social. La
physique de l'amour fait chez eux le moral des mœurs; leur cœur
est glacé, leur societé et leur empire dur. Ils ne regardent
leurs femmes que comme des servantes de peine ou des bêtes de
somme qu'ils chargent, sans ménagement, du fardeau de leur
chasse, et qu'ils forcent, sans pitié, sans reconnoissance,
à des ouvrages qui souvent sont au dessus de leurs forces;
ils n'ont que peu d'enfans; ils en out peu de soin; tout se
ressent de leur premier defaut; ils sont indifférents parce
qu'ils sont peu puissants, et cette indifference pour le sexe
est la tache originelle qui flétrit la nature, qui l'empeche
de s'épanouir, et qui detruisant les germes de la vie, coupe
en même temps la racine de société. L'homme ne fait donc point
d'exception ici. La nature en lui refusant les puissances
de l'amour l'a plus maltraité et plus rapetissé qu'aucun des
animaux."
An afflicting picture, indeed, which for the honor of human
nature, I am glad to believe has no original. Of the Indian of
South America I know nothing; for I would not honor with the
appellation of knowledge, what I derive from the fables published
of them. These I believe to be just as true as the fables
of Æsop. This belief is founded on what I have seen of man,
white, red, and black, and what has been written of him by
authors, enlightened themselves, and writing among an enlightened
people. The Indian of North America being more within
our reach, I can speak of him somewhat from my own knowledge,
but more from the information of others better acquainted
with him, and on whose truth and judgment I can rely. From
these sources I am able to say, in contradiction to this representation,
that he is neither more defective in ardor, nor more impotent
with his female, than the white reduced to the same diet
and exercise; that he is brave, when an enterprise depends on
bravery; education with him making the point of honor consist
in the destruction of an enemy by stratagem, and in the preservation
of his own person free from injury; or, perhaps, this is nature,
while it is education which teaches us to[35] honor force more
than finesse; that he will defend himself against a host of enemies,
always choosing to be killed, rather than to surrender,[36]
though it be to the whites, who he knows will treat him well;
that in other situations, also, he meets death with more deliberation,
and endures tortures with a firmness unknown almost to
religious enthusiasm with us; that he is affectionate to his children,
careful of them, and indulgent in the extreme; that his
affections comprehend his other connections, weakening, as with
us, from circle to circle, as they recede from the centre; that his
friendships are strong and faithful to the uttermost[37] extremity;
that his sensibility is keen, even the warriors weeping most bitterly
on the loss of their children, though in general they endeavor
to appear superior to human events; that his vivacity and
activity of mind is equal to ours in the same situation; hence his
eagerness for hunting, and for games of chance. The women
are submitted to unjust drudgery. This I believe is the case
with every barbarous people. With such, force is law. The
stronger sex imposes on the weaker. It is civilization alone
which replaces women in the enjoyment of their natural equality.
That first teaches us to subdue the selfish passions, and to respect
those rights in others which we value in ourselves. Were
we in equal barbarism, our females would be equal drudges.
The man with them is less strong than with us, but their women
stronger than ours; and both for the same obvious reason; because
our man and their woman is habituated to labor, and
formed by it. With both races the sex which is indulged with
ease is the least athletic. An Indian man is small in the hand
and wrist, for the same reason for which a sailor is large and
strong in the arms and shoulders, and a porter in the legs and
thighs. They raise fewer children than we do. The causes of
this are to be found, not in a difference of nature, but of circumstance.
The women very frequently attending the men in their
parties of war and of hunting, child-bearing becomes extremely
inconvenient to them. It is said, therefore, that they have
learned the practice of procuring abortion by the use of some
vegetable; and that it even extends to prevent conception for a
considerable time after. During these parties they are exposed
to numerous hazards, to excessive exertions, to the greatest extremities
of hunger. Even at their homes the nation depends
for food, through a certain part of every year, on the gleanings
of the forest; that is, they experience a famine once in every
year. With all animals, if the female be badly fed, or not fed at
all, her young perish; and if both male and female be reduced to
like want, generation becomes less active, less productive. To
the obstacles, then, of want and hazard, which nature has opposed
to the multiplication of wild animals, for the purpose of
restraining their numbers within certain bounds, those of labor
and of voluntary abortion are added with the Indian. No wonder,
then, if they multiply less than we do. Where food is
regularly supplied, a single farm will show more of cattle, than
a whole country of forests can of buffaloes. The same Indian
women, when married to white traders, who feed them and their
children plentifully and regularly, who exempt them from excessive
drudgery, who keep them stationary and unexposed to accident,
produce and raise as many children as the white women.
Instances are known, under these circumstances, of their rearing
a dozen children. An inhuman practice once prevailed in this
country, of making slaves of the Indians. It is a fact well
known with us, that the Indian women so enslaved produced
and raised as numerous families as either the whites or blacks
among whom they lived. It has been said that Indians have
less hair than the whites, except on the head. But this is a fact
of which fair proof can scarcely be had. With them it is disgraceful
to be hairy on the body. They say it likens them to
hogs. They therefore pluck the hair as fast as it appears. But
the traders who marry their women, and prevail on them to discontinue
this practice, say, that nature is the same with them as
with the whites. Nor, if the fact be true, is the consequence
necessary which has been drawn from it. Negroes have notoriously
less hair than the whites; yet they are more ardent. But
if cold and moisture be the agents of nature for diminishing the
races of animals, how comes she all at once to suspend their
operation as to the physical man of the new world, whom the
Count acknowledges to be "à peu près de même stature que
l'homme de notre monde," and to let loose their influence on his
moral faculties? How has this "combination of the elements
and other physical causes, so contrary to the enlargement of
animal nature in this new world, these obstacles to the development
and formation of great germs,"[38] been arrested and suspended,
so as to permit the human body to acquire its just dimensions,
and by what inconceivable process has their action
been directed on his mind alone? To judge of the truth of this,
to form a just estimate of their genius and mental powers, more
facts are wanting, and great allowance to be made for those circumstances
of their situation which call for a display of particular
talents only. This done, we shall probably find that they
are formed in mind as well as in body, on the same module with
the[39] "Homo sapiens Europæus." The principles of their society
forbidding all compulsion, they are to be led to duty and
to enterprise by personal influence and persuasion. Hence eloquence
in council, bravery and address in war, become the
foundations of all consequence with them. To these acquirements
all their faculties are directed. Of their bravery and address
in war we have multiplied proofs, because we have been
the subjects on which they were exercised. Of their eminence
in oratory we have fewer examples, because it is displayed
chiefly in their own councils. Some, however, we have, of very
superior lustre. I may challenge the whole orations of Demosthenes
and Cicero, and of any more eminent orator, if Europe
has furnished more eminent, to produce a single passage, superior
to the speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, to Lord Dunmore, then
governor of this State. And as a testimony of their talents in
this line, I beg leave to introduce it, first stating the incidents
necessary for understanding it.
In the spring of the year 1774, a robbery was committed by
some Indians on certain land-adventurers on the river Ohio. The
whites in that quarter, according to their custom, undertook to
punish this outrage in a summary way. Captain Michael Cresap,
and a certain Daniel Greathouse, leading on these parties, surprised,
at different times, travelling and hunting parties of the Indians,
having their women and children with them, and murdered
many. Among these were unfortunately the family of Logan,
a chief celebrated in peace and war, and long distinguished as
the friend of the whites. This unworthy return provoked his
vengeance. He accordingly signalized himself in the war which
ensued. In the autumn of the same year a decisive battle was
fought at the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, between the collected
forces of the Shawanese, Mingoes and Delawares, and a
detachment of the Virginia militia. The Indians were defeated
and sued for peace. Logan, however, disdained to be seen
among the suppliants. But lest the sincerity of a treaty should
be disturbed, from which so distinguished a chief absented himself,
he sent, by a messenger, the following speech, to be delivered
to Lord Dunmore.
"I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's
cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold
and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the
last long and bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin, an
advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my
countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, "Logan is the
friend of white men." I had even thought to have lived with
you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last
spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations
of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There
runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature.
This called on me for revenge. I have sought it: I have killed
many: I have fully glutted my vengeance: for my country I rejoice
at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought that
mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not
turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for
Logan?--Not one."[40]
Before we condemn the Indians of this continent as wanting
genius, we must consider that letters have not yet been introduced
among them. Were we to compare them in their present state
with the Europeans, north of the Alps, when the Roman arms
and arts first crossed those mountains, the comparison would be
unequal, because, at that time, those parts of Europe were swarming
with numbers; because numbers produce emulation, and
multiply the chances of improvement, and one improvement begets
another. Yet I may safely ask, how many good poets, how
many able mathematicians, how many great inventors in arts or
sciences, had Europe, north of the Alps, then produced? And
it was sixteen centuries after this before a Newton could be
formed. I do not mean to deny that there are varieties in the
race of man, distinguished by their powers both of body and
mind. I believe there are, as I see to be the case in the races
of other animals. I only mean to suggest a doubt, whether the
bulk and faculties of animals depend on the side of the Atlantic
on which their food happens to grow, or which furnishes the elements
of which they are compounded? Whether nature has
enlisted herself as a Cis- or Trans-Atlantic partisan? I am induced
to suspect there has been more eloquence than sound
reasoning displayed in support of this theory; that it is one of
those cases where the judgment has been seduced by a glowing
pen; and whilst I render every tribute of honor and esteem to
the celebrated zoologist, who has added, and is still adding, so
many precious things to the treasures of science, I must doubt
whether in this instance he has not cherished error also, by lending
her for a moment his vivid imagination and bewitching language. (4.)
So far the Count de Buffon has carried this new theory of the
tendency of nature to belittle her productions on this side the
Atlantic. Its application to the race of whites transplanted from
Europe, remained for the Abbé Raynal. "On doit etre etonné
(he says) que l'Amerique n'ait pas encore produit un bon poëte,
un habile mathematicien, un homme de genie dans un seul art,
ou seule science." Hist. Philos. p. 92, ed. Maestricht, 1774.
"America has not yet produced one good poet." When we shall
have existed as a people as long as the Greeks did before they
produced a Homer, the Romans a Virgil, the French a Racine
and Voltaire, the English a Shakespeare and Milton, should this
reproach be still true, we will inquire from what unfriendly
causes it has proceeded, that the other countries of Europe and
quarters of the earth shall not have inscribed any name in the
roll of poets.[41] But neither has America produced "one able
mathematician, one man of genius in a single art or a single
science." In war we have produced a Washington, whose
memory will be adored while liberty shall have votaries, whose
name shall triumph over time, and will in future ages assume its
just station among the most celebrated worthies of the world,
when that wretched philosophy shall be forgotten which would
have arranged him among the degeneracies of nature. In
physics we have produced a Franklin, than whom no one of the
present age has made more important discoveries, nor has enriched
philosophy with more, or more ingenious solutions of the
phenomena of nature. We have supposed Mr. Rittenhouse
second to no astronomer living; that in genius he must be the
first, because he is self-taught. As an artist he has exhibited as
great a proof of mechanical genius as the world has ever produced.
He has not indeed made a world; but he has by imitation
approached nearer its Maker than any man who has lived
from the creation to this day.[42] As in philosophy and war, so in
government, in oratory, in painting, in the plastic art, we might
show that America, though but a child of yesterday, has already
given hopeful proofs of genius, as well as of the nobler kinds,
which arouse the best feelings of man, which call him into action,
which substantiate his freedom, and conduct him to happiness,
as of the subordinate, which serve to amuse him only. We
therefore suppose, that this reproach is as unjust as it is unkind:
and that, of the geniuses which adorn the present age, America
contributes its full share. For comparing it with those countries
where genius is most cultivated, where are the most excellent
models for art, and scaffoldings for the attainment of science, as
France and England for instance, we calculate thus: The United
States contains three millions of inhabitants; France twenty
millions; and the British islands ten. We produce a Washington,
a Franklin, a Rittenhouse. France then should have half
a dozen in each of these lines, and Great Britain half that number,
equally eminent. It may be true that France has; we are
but just becoming acquainted with her, and our acquaintance so
far gives us high ideas of the genius of her inhabitants. It
would be injuring too many of them to name particularly a Voltaire,
a Buffon, the constellation of Encyclopedists, the Abbé
Raynal himself, &c. &c. We, therefore, have reason to believe
she can produce her full quota of genius. The present war having
so long cut off all communication with Great Britain, we are
not able to make a fair estimate of the state of science in that
country. The spirit in which she wages war, is the only sample
before our eyes, and that does not seem the legitimate offspring
either of science or of civilization. The sun of her
glory is fast descending to the horizon. Her philosophy has
crossed the channel, her freedom the Atlantic, and herself seems
passing to that awful dissolution whose issue is not given human
foresight to scan.[43]
Having given a sketch of our minerals, vegetables, and quadrupeds,
and being led by a proud theory to make a comparison
of the latter with those of Europe, and to extend it to the man
of America, both aboriginal and emigrant, I will proceed to the
remaining articles comprehended under the present query.
Between ninety and a hundred of our birds have been described
by Catesby. His drawings are better as to form and attitude
than coloring, which is generally too high. They are the following:
BIRDS OF VIRGINIA.
---------------+---------------------+--------------------+---------
Linnæan |Catesby's | Popular Names. |Buffon
Designation. |Designation. | |oiseaux.
| | |
---------------+---------------------+--------------------+---------
Lanius |Muscicapa |Tyrant. Field martin| 8.398
tyrannus |coronâ rubrâ 1.55| |
| | |
Vultur |Buteo specie |Turkey buzzard | 1.246
aura |Gallo pavonis 1.6| |
| | |
| | |
Falco |Aquila capite |Bald eagle | 1.138
leucocephalus |albo 1.1| |
| | |
| | |
Falco |Accipiter minor 1.5|Little hawk. |
sparverius | |Sparrow hawk |
| | |
Falco |Accipiter |Pigeon hawk | 1.338
columbarious |palumbarius 1.3| |
| | |
Falco |Accipiter | |
furcatus |caudâ furcatâ 1.4|Forked tail hawk |1.286.312
| | |
|Accipiter |Fishing hawk | 1.199
|piscatorius 1.2| |
| | |
Strix |Noctua |Little owl | 1.141
asio |aurita minor 1.7| |
| | |
Psittacus |Psittacus |Parrot of Carolina. |
Caroliniensis |Carolinensus 1.11|Parroquet | 11.383
| | |
Corvus |Pica glandaria, |Blue jay | 5.164
cristatus |cærulea, cristata 1.1| |
| | |
Oriolus |Icterus ex aureo |Baltimore bird | 5.318
Baltimore |nigroque varius 1.48| |
| | |
Oriolus |Icterus minor 1.49|Bastard Baltimore | 5.321
spurius | | |
| | |
Gracula |Monedula |Purple jackdaw. | 5.134
quiscula |purpurea 1.12|Crow blackbird |
| | |
Cuculus |Cuculus |Carolina cuckow | 12.62
Americanus |Caroliniensis 1.9| |
| | |
Picus |Picus maximus |White bill | 13.69
principalis |rostro albo 1.16|woodpecker |
| | |
Picus |Picus niger maximus, |Larger red-crested | 13.72
pileatus |capite rubro 1.17|woodpecker |
| | |
Picus |Picus capite |Red headed | 13.83
erythrocephalus|toto rubro 1.20|woodpecker |
| | |
Picus |Picus major |Gold winged | 13.59
auratus |alis aureis 1.18|woodpecker. Yucker |
| | |
Picus |Picus ventre |Red-bellied | 13.105
Carolinus |rubro 1.19|woodpecker |
| | |
Picus |Picus varius |Smallest | 13.113
pubescens |minimus 1.21|spotted woodpecker |
| | |
Picus |Picus medius |Hairy woodpecker. | 13.111
villosus |quasi-villosus 1.19|Spec. woodpecker |
| | |
Picus |Picus varius minor |Yellow-bellied | 13.115
varius |ventre luteo 1.21|woodpecker. |
| | |
Sitta |{Sitta capite nigro 1.22 |Nuthatch | 10.213
Europæa |{Sitta capite fusco 1.22 |Small Nuthatch | 10.214
| | |
Alcedo |Ispida 1.69|Kingfisher | 13.310
alcyon | | |
| | |
Certhia |Parus Americanus |Pine-Creeper | 9.433
pinus |lutescens 1.61| |
| | |
Trochilus |Mellivora avis |Humming bird | 11.16
colubris |Caroliniensis 1.65| |
| | |
Anas |Anser |Wild goose | 17.122
Canadensis |Canadensis 1.92| |
| | |
Anas |Anas minor |Buffel's-head duck | 17.356
bucephala |purpureo capite 1.95| |
| | |
Anas |Anas minor ex albo |Little brown duck | 17.413
rustica |& fusco vario 1.98| |
| | |
Anas discors |Querquedula Americana|White face teal | 17.403
_a_ |variegata 1.10|
| | |
Anas discors |Querquedula |Blue wing teal | 17.405
_b_ |Americana fusca 1.99| |
| | |
Anas sponsa |Anas Americanus 1.97|Summer duck | 17.351
|cristatus elegans | |
| | |
|Anas Americanus |Blue wing shoveler | 17.275
|lato rostro 1.96| |
| | |
Mergus |Anas cristatus |Round crested duck | 15.437
cucullatus | 1.94| |
| | |
Columbus |Prodicipes minor |Pied bill dopchick | 15.383
podiceps |rostro vario 1.91| |
| | |
Ardea |Ardea cristata maxima|Largest crested | 14.113
Herodias |American 3.10|heron |
| | |
Ardea |Ardea stellaris |Crested bittern | 14.134
violacea |cristata | |
|Americana 1.79| |
| | |
Ardea cærulea |Ardea cærulea 1.76|Blue heron. Crane | 14.131
| | |
Ardea |Ardea stellaris |Small bittern | 14.142
virescens | minima 1.80| |
| | |
Ardea |Ardea alba minor |Little white heron | 14.136
æquinoctialis |Caroliniensis 1.77| |
| | |
|Ardea stellaris |Brown bittern. | 14.175
|Americana 1.78|Indian hen |
| | |
Tantalus |Pelicanus |Wood pelican | 13.403
loculator |Americanus 1.81| |
| | |
Tantalus alber |Numenius albus 1.82|White curlew | 15.62
| | |
Tantalus fuscus|Numenius fuscus 1.83|Brown curlew | 15.64
| | |
Charadrius |Pluvialis |Chattering plover. | 15.151
vociferus |vociferus 1.71|Kildee |
| | |
Hæmatopus |Hæmatopus 1.85|Oyster-catcher | 15.185
ostralegus | | |
| | |
Rallus |Gallinula |Soree. Ral-bird | 15.256
Virginianus |Americana 1.70| |
| | |
Meleagris |Gallopavo |Wild Turkey |3.187.229
Gallopavo |Sylvestris xliv.| |
| | |
Tetrao |Perdix Sylvestris |American partridge. | 4.237
Virginianus |Virginiana 3.12|American quail |
| | |
|Urgallus minor, or |Pheasant. | 3.409
|kind of Lagopus 3.1|Mountain partridge |
| | |
Columba |Turtur minimus |Ground dove | 4.404
passerina |guttatus 1.26| |
| | |
Columba |Palumbus |Pigeon of passage. | 4.351
migratorio |migratorius 1.23|Wild pigeon |
| | |
Columba |Turtur |Turtle. Turtle dove | 4.401
Caroliniensis |Caroliniensis 1.24| |
| | |
Alauda |Alauda gutture |Lark. Sky lark | 9.79
alpestris |flavo 1.32| |
| | |
Alauda magna ||Alauda magna 1.33|Field lark. | 6.59
| |Large lark |
| | |
|Sturnus niger alis |Red wing. | 5.293
|supernis |Starling. |
|rubentibus 1.13|Marsh blackbird |
| | |
Turdus |Turdus pilaris |Fieldfare of Carolina. {5.426
migratorius |migratorius 1.29|Robin redbreast | {9.257
| | |
Turdus rufus |Turdus rufus 1.28|Fox colored thrush. | 5.449
| |Thrush |
| | |
Turdus |Turdus minor cinereo |Mocking bird | 5.451
polyglottos |albus non | |
|maculatus 1.27| |
| | |
|Turdus minimus 1.31|Little thrush | 5.400
| | |
Ampelis |Garrulus |Chatterer | 6.162
garrulus _b_ |Caroliniensis 1.46| |
| | |
Loxia |Coccothraustes |Red bird. | 6.185
Cardinalis |rubra 1.38|Virginia nightingale|
| | |
Loxia Cærulea |Coccothraustes |Blue gross beak | 8.125
|cærulea 1.39| |
| | |
Emberiza |Passer nivalis 1.36|Snow bird | 8.47
hyemalis | | |
| | |
Emberiza |Hortulanus |Rice Bird | 8.49
Oryzivora |Caroliniensis 1.14| |
| | |
Emberiza Ciris |Fringilla |Painted finch | 7.247
|tricolor 1.44| |
| | |
Tanagra cyanea |Linaria cærulea 1.45|Blue linnet | 7.122
| | |
|Passerculus 1.35|Little sparrow | 7.120
| | |
|Passer fuscus 1.34|Cowpen bird | 7.196
| | |
Fringilla |Passer niger oculis |Towhe bird | 7.201
erythrophthalma|rubris 1.34| |
| | |
Fringilla |Carduelis |American goldfinch. | 7.297
tristis |Americanus 1.43|Lettuce bird |
| | |
|Fringilla |Purple finch | 8.129
|purpurea 1.41| |
| | |
Muscicapa |Muscicapa cristata |Crested flycatcher | 8.379
crinita |ventre luteo 1.52| |
| | |
Muscicapa rubra|Muscicapa rubra 1.56|Summer red bird | 8.410
| | |
Muscicapa |Ruticilla |Red start | { 8.349
ruticilla |Americana 1.67| | { 9.259
| | |
Muscicapa |Muscicapa vertice |Cat bird | 8.372
Caroliniensis |nigro 1.66| |
| | |
|Muscicapa |Black cap flycatcher| 8.341
|nigrescens 1.53| |
| | |
|Muscicapa fusca 1.54|Little brown | 8.344
| |flycatcher |
| | |
|Muscicapa oculis |Red-eyed flycatcher | 8.337
|rubris 1.54| |
| | |
Motacilla |Rubicula Americana |Blue bird | 9.308
Sialis |cærulea 1.47| |
| | |
Motacilla |Regulus |Wren | 10.58
regulus |cristatus 3.13| |
| | |
Motacilla |Oenanthe Americana |Yellow breasted chat| 6.96
trochilus _b_ |pectore luteo 1.50| |
| | |
Parus bicolor |Parus cristatus 1.57|Crested titmouse | 10.181
| | |
Parus |Parus |Finch creeper | 9.442
Americanus |fringillaris 1.64| |
| | |
Parus |Parus uropygeo |Yellow rump | 10.184
Virginianus |luteo 1.58| |
| | |
|Parus cucullo |Hooded titmouse | 10.183
|nigro 1.60| |
| | |
|Parus Americanus |Yellow throated |
|gutture luteo 1.62|creeper |
| | |
|Parus |Yellow titmouse | 9.431
|aroliniensis 1.63| |
| | |
Hirundo |Hirundo cauda |American swallow | 12.478
Pelasgia |aculeata | |
|Americana 3.8| |
| | |
Hirundo |Hirundo purpurea 1.51|Purple marten. | 12.445
purpurea | |House marten |
| | |
Caprimulgus |Caprimulgus 1.8|Goatsucker. | 12.243
Europæus _a_ | |Great bat |
| | |
Caprimulgus |Caprimulgus minor |Whip poor Will | 12.246
Europæus _b_ |Americanus 3.16| |
Besides these, we have,
The Royston crow. Corvus cornix.
Crane. Ardea Canadensis.
House swallow, Hirundo rustica.
Ground swallow. Hirundo riparia.
Greatest gray eagle.
Smaller turkey buzzard, with a feathered head.
Greatest owl, or night hawk.
Wet hawk, which feeds flying.
Raven.
Water Pelican of the Mississippi, whose pouch holds a peck.
Swan.
Loon.
Cormorant.
Duck and mallard.
Widgeon.
Sheldrach, or Canvas back.
The Black head.
Ballcoot.
Sprigtail.
Didapper, or dopehick.
Spoon-billed duck.
Water-witch.
Water-pheasant.
Mow-bird.
Blue Peter.
Water Wagtail.
Yellow-legged Snipe.
Squatting Snipe.
Small Plover.
Whistling Plover.
Woodcock.
Red bird, with black head, wings and tail.
And doubtless many others which have not yet been described
and classed.
To this catalogue of our indigenous animals, I will add a
short account of an anomaly of nature, taking place sometimes in
the race of negroes brought from Africa, who, though black
themselves, have, in rare instances, white children, called Albinos.
I have known four of these myself, and have faithful accounts
of three others. The circumstances in which all the individuals
agree are these. They are of a pallid cadaverous white, untinged
with red, without any colored spots or seams; their hair
of the same kind of white, short, coarse, and curled as is that of
the negro; all of them well formed, strong, healthy, perfect in
their senses, except that of sight, and born of parents who had
no mixture of white blood. Three of these Albinos were sisters,
having two other full sisters, who were black. The youngest
of the three was killed by lightning, at twelve years of age.
The eldest died at about 27 years of age, in child-bed, with her
second child. The middle one is now alive, in health, and has
issue, as the eldest had, by a black man, which issue was black.
They are uncommonly shrewd, quick in their apprehensions and
in reply. Their eyes are in a perpetual tremulous vibration,
very weak, and much affected by the sun; but they see much
better in the night than we do. They are of the property of
Colonel Skipwith, of Cumberland. The fourth is a negro
woman, whose parents came from Guinea, and had three other
children, who were of their own color. She is freckled, her
eye-sight so weak that she is obliged to wear a bonnet in the
summer; but it is better in the night than day. She had an
Albino child by a black man. It died at the age of a few weeks.
These were the property of Col. Carter, of Albemarle. A sixth
instance is a women the property of a Mr. Butler, near Petersburg.
She is stout and robust, has issue a daughter, jet black,
by a black man. I am not informed as to her eye-sight. The
seventh instance is of a male belonging to a Mr. Lee of Cumberland.
His eyes are tremulous and weak. He is tall of stature,
and now advanced in years. He is the only male of the Albinos
which have come within my information. Whatever be the
cause of the disease in the skin, or in its coloring matter, which
produces this change, it seems more incident to the female than
male sex. To these I may add the mention of a negro man
within my own knowledge, born black, and of black parents;
on whose chin, when a boy, a white spot appeared. This continued
to increase till he became a man, by which time it had
extended over his chin, lips, one cheek, the under jaw, and neck
on that side. It is of the Albino white, without any mixture of
red, and has for several years been stationary. He is robust and
healthy, and the change of color was not accompanied with any
sensible disease, either general or topical.
Of our fish and insects there has been nothing like a full description
or collection. More of them are described in Catesby
than in any other work. Many also are to be found in Sir Hans
Sloane's Jamaica, as being common to that and this country.
The honey-bee is not a native of our continent. Marcgrave, indeed,
mentions a species of honey-bee in Brazil. But this has
no sting, and is therefore different from the one we have, which
resembles perfectly that of Europe. The Indians concur with
us in the tradition that it was brought from Europe; but when,
and by whom, we know not. The bees have generally extended
themselves into the country, a little in advance of the
white settlers. The Indians, therefore, call them the white
man's fly, and consider their approach as indicating the approach
of the settlements of the whites. A question here occurs, How
far northwardly have these insects been found? That they are
unknown in Lapland, I infer from Scheffer's information, that
the Laplanders eat the pine bark, prepared in a certain way, instead
of those things sweetened with sugar. "Hoc comedunt
pro rebus saccharo conditis." Scheff. Lapp. c. 18. Certainly if
they had honey, it would be a better substitute for sugar than
any preparation of the pine bark. Kalm tells us[44] the honey-bee
cannot live through the winter in Canada. They furnish then
an additional fact first observed by the Count de Buffon, and
which has thrown such a blaze of light on the field of natural
history, that no animals are found in both continents, but those
which are able to bear the cold of those regions where they probably
join.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] 2 Buffon Epoques, 96.
[4] Hunter.
[5] D'Aubenton.
[6] Buffon, xviii. 112 edit. Paris, 1764.
[7] Buffon, xviii. 100, 156.
[8] viii. 134.
[9] It is said that this animal is seldom seen above thirty
miles from shore, or beyond the 56th degree of latitude.
The interjacent islands between Asia and America admit his
passing from one continent to the other without exceeding
these bounds. And in fact, travellers tell us that these
islands are places of principal resort for them, and
especially in the season of bringing forth their young.
[10] I. 233, Lon. 1772.
[11] Ib. 233.
[12] l. xxvii.
[13] XXIV. 162.
[14] XV. 42.
[15] I. 359. I. 48, 221, 251. II. 52.
[16] II. 78.
[17] I. 220.
[18] XXVII. 63. XIV. 119. Harris, II. 387. Buffon, Quad. IX. 1.
[19] Quad. IX. 158.
[20] XXV. 184.
[21] Quad. IX. 132.
[22] XIX. 2.
[23] Quad. IX. 41.
[24] The descriptions of Theodat, Denys and La Honton, cited
by Monsieur de Buffon, under the article Elan, authorize
the supposition, that the flat-horned elk is found in the
northern parts of America. It has not however extended
to our latitudes. On the other hand, I could never learn
that the round-horned elk has been seen further north
than the Hudson's river. This agrees with the former elk
in its general character, being, like that, when compared
with a deer, very much larger, its ears longer, broader,
and thicker in proportion, its hair much longer, neck and
tail shorter, having a dewlap before the breast (caruncula
gutturalis Linnæi) a white spot often, if not always, of
a foot diameter, on the hinder part of the buttocks round
the tail; its gait a trot, and attended with a rattling
of the hoofs; but distinguished from that decisively by
its horns, which are not palmated, but round and pointed.
This is the animal described by Catesby as the Cervus major
Americanus, the stag of America, le Cerf de l'Amerique. But
it differs from the Cervus as totally as does the palmated
elk from the dama. And in fact it seems to stand in the
same relation to the palmated elk, as the red deer does
to the fallow. It has abounded in Virginia, has been seen,
within my knowledge, on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge
since the year 1765, is now common beyond those mountains,
has been often brought to us and tamed, and its horns are
in the hands of many. I should designate it as the "Alces
Americanus cornibus teretibus." It were to be wished, that
naturalists, who are acquainted with the renne and elk of
Europe, and who may hereafter visit the northern parts
of America, would examine well the animals called there
by the names of gray and black moose, caribou, original
and elk. Monsieur de Buffon has done what could be done
from the materials in his hands, toward clearing up the
confusion introduced by the loose application of these names
among the animals they are meant to designate. He reduces
the whole to the renne and flat-horned elk. From all the
information I have been able to collect, I strongly suspect
they will be found to cover three, if not four distinct
species of animals. I have seen skins of a moose, and of
the caribou: they differ more from each other, and from
that of the round-horned elk, than I ever saw two skins
differ which belonged to different individuals of any wild
species. These differences are in the color, length, and
coarseness of the hair, and in the size, texture, and marks
of the skin. Perhaps it will be found that there is, 1,
the moose, black and gray, the former being said to be the
male, and the latter the female; 2, the caribou or renne;
3, the flat-horned elk, or original; 4, the round-horned
elk. Should this last, though possessing so nearly the
characters of the elk, be found to be the same with the
Cerf d'Ardennes or Brandhitz of Germany, still there will
remain the three species first enumerated.
[25] Kalm II. 340, I. 82.
[26] The Tapir is the largest of the animals peculiar to America.
I collect his weight thus: Monsieur de Buffon says, XXIII.
274, that he is of the size of a Zebu, or a small cow.
He gives us the measures of a Zebu, ib. 4, as taken by
himself, viz. five feet seven inches from the muzzle to
the root of the tail, and five feet one inch circumference
behind the fore-legs. A bull, measuring in the same way
six feet nine inches and five feet two inches, weighed six
hundred pounds, VIII. 153. The Zebu then, and of course
the Tapir, would weigh about five hundred pounds. But one
individual of every species of European peculiars would
probably weigh less than four hundred pounds. These are
French measures and weights.
[27] VII. 432.
[28] VII. 474.
[29] In Williamsburg, April, 1769.
[30] VIII. 48, 55, 66.
[31] XVIII. 96.
[32] IX. 41.
[33] XXX. 219.
[34] XVIII. 146.
[35] Sol Rodomonte sprezza di venire
Se non, dove la via meno o fieura.--ARISTO, 14, 117.
[36] In so judicious an author as Don Ulloa, and one to whom we
are indebted for the most precise information we have of
South America, I did not expect to find such assertions as
the following: "Los Indios vencidos son los mas cobardes
y pusilanimes que se pueden vér: Se hacen inöcentes, le
humillan hasta el desprecio, disculpan su inconsiderado
arrojo, y con las suplicas y los ruegos dán seguras pruebas
de su pusilanimidad. Ó lo que resieren las historias de
la Conquista, sobre sus grandes acciones, es en un sendito
figurado, ó el caracter de estas gentes no es ahora segun
era entonces; pero lo que no tiene duda es, que las Naciones
de la parte Septentrional subsisten en la misma libertad
que siempre han tenido, sin haber sido sojuzgados por algon
Principe extrano, y que viven segun su régimen y costumbres
de toda la vida, sin que haya habido motivo para que muden
de caracter; y en estos se vé lo mismo, que sucede en los
Peru, y de toda la América Meridional, reducidos, y que
nunca lo han estado." Noticias Americanas, Entretenimiento
xviii. §. 1. Don Ulloa here admits, that the authors who
have described the Indians of South America, before they
were enslaved, had represented them as a brave people,
and therefore seems to have suspected that the cowardice
which he had observed in those of the present race might
be the effect of subjugation. But, supposing the Indians
of North America to be cowards also, he concludes the
ancestors of those of South America to have been so too,
and, therefore, that those authors have given fictions
for truth. He was probably not acquainted himself with
the Indians of North America, and had formed his opinion
from hear-say. Great numbers of French, of English, and
of Americans, are perfectly acquainted with these people.
Had he had an opportunity of inquiring of any of these,
they would have told him, that there never was an instance
known of an Indian begging his life when in the power
of his enemies; on the contrary, that he courts death
by every possible insult and provocation. His reasoning,
then, would have been reversed thus: "Since the present
Indian of North America is brave, and authors tell us that
the ancestors of those of South America were brave also,
it must follow that the cowardice of their descendants
is the effect of subjugation and ill treatment." For he
observes, ib. §. 27, that "los obrages los aniquillan por
la inhumanidad con que se les trata."
[37] XVIII. 146.
[38] Linn. Syst. Definition of a Man.
[39] A remarkable instance of this appeared in the case of the
late Colonel Byrd, who was sent to the Cherokee nation to
transact some business with them. It happened that some of
our disorderly people had just killed one or two of that
nation. It was therefore proposed in the council of the
Cherokees that Colonel Byrd should be put to death, in
revenge for the loss of their countrymen. Among them was
a chief named Silòuee, who, on some former occasion, had
contracted an acquaintance and friendship with Colonel Byrd.
He came to him every night in his tent, and told him not
to be afraid, they should not kill him. After many days'
deliberation, however, the determination was, contrary to
Silòuee's expectation, that Byrd should be put to death,
and some warriors were despatched as executioners. Silòuee
attended them, and when they entered the tent, he threw
himself between them and Byrd, and said to the warriors,
"This man is my friend; before you get at him, you must
kill me." On which they returned, and the council respected
the principle so much as to recede from their determination.
[40] PHILADELPHIA, December 31, 1797.
DEAR SIR,--Mr. Tazewell has communicated to me the inquiries
you have been so kind as to make, relative to a passage
in the "Notes on Virginia," which has lately excited some
newspaper publications. I feel, with great sensibility,
the interest you take in this business, and with pleasure,
go into explanations with one whose objects I know to be
truth and justice alone. Had Mr. Martin thought proper
to suggest to me, that doubts might be entertained of the
transaction respecting Logan, as stated in the "Notes on
Virginia," and to inquire on what grounds that statement
was founded, I should have felt myself obliged by the
inquiry; have informed him candidly of the grounds, and
cordially have co-operated in every means of investigating
the fact, and correcting whatsoever in it should be found
to have been erroneous. But he chose to step at once into
the newspapers, and in his publications there and the
letters he wrote to me, adopted a style which forbade the
respect of an answer. Sensible, however, that no act of
his could absolve me from the justice due to others, as
soon as I found that the story of Logan could be doubted,
I determined to inquire into it as accurately as the
testimony remaining, after a lapse of twenty odd years,
would permit, and that the result should be made known,
either in the first new edition which should be printed of
the "Notes on Virginia," or by publishing an appendix. I
thought that so far as that work had contributed to impeach
the memory of Cresap, by handing on an erroneous charge it
was proper it should be made the vehicle of retribution.
Not that I was at all the author of the injury; I had
only concurred, with thousands and thousands of others,
in believing a transaction on authority which merited
respect. For the story of Logan is only repeated in the
"Notes on Virginia," precisely as it had been current for
more than a dozen years before they were published. When
Lord Dunmore returned from the expedition against the
Indians, in 1774, he and his officers brought the speech
of Logan, and related the circumstances of it. These were
so affecting, and the speech itself so fine a morsel of
eloquence, that it became the theme of every conversation,
in Williamsburg particularly, and generally, indeed,
wheresoever any of the officers resided or resorted. I
learned it in Williamsburg, I believe at Lord Dunmore's;
and I find in my pocket-book of that year (1774) an entry
of the narrative, as taken from the mouth of some person,
whose name, however, is not noted, nor recollected,
precisely in the words stated in the "Notes on Virginia."
The speech was published in the Virginia Gazette of that
time, (I have it myself in the volume of gazettes of that
year,) and though it was the translation made by the common
interpreter, and in a style by no means elegant, yet it
was so admired, that it flew through all the public papers
of the continent, and through the magazines and other
periodical publications of Great Britain; and those who
were boys at that day will now attest, that the speech
of Logan used to be given them as a school exercise for
repetition. It was not till about thirteen or fourteen
years after the newspaper publications, that the "Notes on
Virginia" were published in America. Combating, in these,
the contumelious theory of certain European writers, whose
celebrity gave currency and weight to their opinions, that
our country from the combined effects of soil and climate,
degenerated animal nature, in the general, and particularly
the moral faculties of man, I considered the speech of
Logan as an apt proof of the contrary, and used it as
such; and I copied, verbatim, the narrative I had taken
down in 1774, and the speech as it had been given us in a
better translation by Lord Dunmore. I knew nothing of the
Cresaps, and could not possibly have a motive to do them
an injury with design. I repeated what thousands had done
before, on as good authority as we have for most of the
facts we learn through life, and such as, to this moment,
I have seen no reason to doubt. That any body questioned
it, was never suspected by me, till I saw the letter of
Mr. Martin in the Baltimore paper. I endeavored then to
recollect who among my contemporaries, of the same circle
of society, and consequently of the same recollections,
might still be alive; three and twenty years of death
and dispersion had left very few. I remembered, however,
that General Gibson was still living, and knew that he
had been the translator of the speech. I wrote to him
immediately. He, in answer, declares to me, that he was
the very person sent by Lord Dunmore to the Indian town;
that, after he had delivered his message there, Logan
took him out to a neighboring wood; sat down with him, and
rehearsing, with tears, the catastrophe of his family, gave
him that speech for Lord Dunmore; that he carried it to
Lord Dunmore; translated it for him; has turned to it in
the Encyclopedia, as taken from the "Notes on Virginia,"
and finds that it was his translation I had used, with
only two or three verbal variations of no importance.
These, I suppose, had arisen in the course of successive
copies. I cite General Gibson's letter by memory, not
having it with me; but I am sure I cite it substantially
right. It establishes unquestionably, that the speech of
Logan is genuine; and that being established, it is Logan
himself who is author of all the important facts. "Colonel
Cresap," says he, "in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered
all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women
and children; there runs not a drop of my blood in the
veins of any living creature." The person and the fact,
in all its material circumstances, are here given by Logan
himself. General Gibson, indeed, says, that the title was
mistaken; that Cresap was a Captain, and not a Colonel.
This was Logan's mistake. He also observes, that it was on
another water of the Ohio, and not on the Kanhaway, that
his family was killed. This is an error which has crept
into the traditionary account; but surely of little moment
in the moral view of the subject. The material question
is, was Logan's family murdered, and by whom? That it
was murdered has not, I believe, been denied; that it was
by one of the Cresaps, Logan affirms. This is a question
which concerns the memories of Logan and Cresap; to the
issue of which I am as indifferent as if I had never heard
the name of either. I have begun and shall continue to
inquire into the evidence additional to Logan's, on which
the fact was founded. Little, indeed, can now be heard
of, and that little dispersed and distant. If it shall
appear on inquiry, that Logan has been wrong in charging
Cresap with the murder of his family, I will do justice
to the memory of Cresap, as far as I have contributed to
the injury, by believing and repeating what others had
believed and repeated before me. If, on the other hand, I
find that Logan was right in his charge, I will vindicate,
as far as my suffrage may go, the truth of a Chief, whose
talents and misfortunes have attached to him the respect
and commiseration of the world.
I have gone, my dear Sir, into this lengthy detail to
satisfy a mind, in the candor and rectitude of which I have
the highest confidence. So far as you may incline to use
the communication for rectifying the judgments of those
who are willing to see things truly as they are, you are
free to use it. But I pray that no confidence which you may
repose in any one, may induce you to let it go out of your
hands, so as to get into a newspaper: against a contest
in that field I am entirely decided. I feel extraordinary
gratification, indeed, in addressing this letter to you,
with whom shades of difference in political sentiment have
not prevented the interchange of good opinion, nor cut off
the friendly offices of society and good correspondence.
This political tolerance is the more valued by me, who
consider social harmony as the first of human felicities,
and the happiest moments, those which are given to the
effusions of the heart. Accept them sincerely, I pray you,
from one who has the honor to be, with sentiments of high
respect and attachment, dear Sir, your most obedient, and
most humble servant.
[41] Has the world as yet produced more than two poets,
acknowledged to be such by all nations? An Englishman only
reads Milton with delight, an Italian, Tasso, a Frenchman,
the Henriade; a Portuguese, Camoens; but Homer and Virgil
have been the rapture of every age and nation; they are
read with enthusiasm in their originals by those who can
read the originals, and in translations by those who cannot.
[42] There are various ways of keeping truth out of sight. Mr.
Rittenhouse's model of the planetary system has the plagiary
application of an Orrery; and the quadrant invented by
Godfrey, an American also, and with the aid of which the
European nations traverse the globe, is called Hadley's
quadrant.
[43] In a later edition of the Abbé Raynal's work, he has
withdrawn his censure from that part of the new world
inhabited by the Federo-Americans; but has left it still
on the other parts. North America has always been more
accessible to strangers than South. If he was mistaken
then as to the former, he may be so as to the latter. The
glimmerings which reach us from South America enable us
to see that its inhabitants are held under the accumulated
pressure of slavery, superstition and ignorance. Whenever
they shall be able to rise under this weight, and to show
themselves to the rest of the world, they will probably
show they are like the rest of the world. We have not yet
sufficient evidence that there are more lakes and fogs in
South America than in other parts of the earth. As little
do we know what would be their operation on the mind
of man. That country has been visited by Spaniards and
Portuguese chiefly, and almost exclusively. These, going
from a country of the old world remarkably dry in its soil
and climate, fancied there were more lakes and fogs in
South America than in Europe. An inhabitant of Ireland,
Sweden, or Finland would have formed the contrary opinion.
Had South America then been discovered and settled by a
people from a fenny country, it would probably have been
represented as much drier than the old world. A patient
pursuit of facts, and cautious combination and comparison
of them, is the drudgery to which man is subjected by his
Maker, if he wishes to attain sure knowledge.
[44] I. 126.
QUERY VII.
_A notice of all that can increase the progress of Human
Knowledge?_
Under the latitude of this query, I will presume it not improper
nor unacceptable to furnish some data for estimating the
climate of Virginia. Journals of observations on the quantity
of rain, and degree of heat, being lengthy, confused, and too
minute to produce general and distinct ideas, I have taken five
years' observations, to wit, from 1772 to 1777, made in Williamsburg
and its neighborhood, have reduced them to an average
for every month in the year, and stated those averages in the
following table, adding an analytical view of the winds during
the same period.
The rains of every month, (as of January, for instance,)
through the whole period of years, were added separately, and
an average drawn from them. The coolest and warmest point
of the same day in each year of the period, were added separately,
and an average of the greatest cold and greatest heat of
that day was formed. From the averages of every day in the
month, a general average was formed. The point from which
the wind blew, was observed two or three times in every day.
These observations, in the month of January, for instance,
through the whole period, amounted to three hundred and thirty-seven.
At seventy-three of these, the wind was from the north;
forty-seven from the north-east, &c. So that it will be easy to
see in what proportion each wind usually prevails in each month;
or, taking the whole year, the total of observations through the
whole period having been three thousand six hundred and ninety-eight,
it will be observed that six hundred and eleven of them
were from the north, five hundred and fifty-eight from the
north-east, &c.
------+-------+--------------+-----------------------------------------
|Fall |Least and | WINDS.
|of |greatest +---+----+---+----+---+----+---+----+-----
|rain, |daily heat, by|
|etc., |Fahrenheit's | | | | | | | | |
|in |thermometer. |N. |N.E.| E.|S.E.| S.|S.W.| W.|N.W.|Total.
|inches.| | | | | | | | | |
------+-------+--------------+---+----+---+----+---+----+---+----+------
Jan. | 3.192 | 38½ to 44 | 73| 47 | 32| 10 | 11| 78 | 40| 46 | 337
Feb. | 2.049 | 41 .. 47½ | 61| 52 | 24| 11 | 4| 63 | 30| 31 | 276
March | 3.95 | 48 .. 54½ | 49| 44 | 38| 28 | 14| 83 | 29| 33 | 318
April | 3.68 | 56 .. 62½ | 35| 44 | 54| 19 | 9| 58 | 18| 20 | 257
May | 2.871 | 63 .. 70½ | 27| 36 | 62| 23 | 7| 74 | 32| 20 | 281
June | 3.751 | 71½ .. 78¼ | 22| 34 | 43| 24 | 13| 81 | 25| 25 | 267
July | 4.497 | 77 .. 82½ | 41| 44 | 75| 15 | 7| 95 | 32| 19 | 328
August| 9.153 | 76¼ .. 81 | 43| 52 | 40| 30 | 9|103 | 27| 30 | 334
Sept. | 4.761 | 69½ .. 74¼ | 70| 60 | 51| 18 | 10| 81 | 18| 37 | 345
Oct. | 3.633 | 61¼ .. 66½ | 52| 77 | 64| 15 | 6| 56 | 23| 34 | 327
Nov. | 2.617 | 47¾ .. 53½ | 74| 21 | 20| 14 | 9| 63 | 35| 58 | 294
Dec. | 2.877 | 43 .. 48¾ | 64| 37 | 18| 16 | 10| 91 | 42| 56 | 334
+-------+--------------+---+----+---+----+---+----+---+----+-----
Total.|47.038 | 8 A.M. |611|548 |521|223 |109|926 |351|409 |3,698
| | to 4 P. M. | | | | | | | | |
------+-------+--------------+---+----+---+----+---+----+---+----+-----
Though by this table it appears we have on an average forty-seven
inches of rain annually, which is considerably more than
usually falls in Europe, yet from the information I have collected,
I suppose we have a much greater proportion of sunshine
here than there. Perhaps it will be found, there are twice as
many cloudy days in the middle parts of Europe, as in the
United States of America. I mention the middle parts of Europe,
because my information does not extend to its northern or
southern parts.
In an extensive country, it will of course be expected that the
climate is not the same in all its parts. It is remarkable, that
proceeding on the same parallel of latitude westwardly, the
climate becomes colder in like manner as when you proceed
northwardly. This continues to be the case till you attain the
summit of the Alleghany, which is the highest land between the
ocean and the Mississippi. From thence, descending in the
same latitude to the Mississippi, the change reverses; and, if we
may believe travellers, it becomes warmer there than it is in the
same latitude on the sea-side. Their testimony is strengthened
by the vegetables and animals which subsist and multiply there
naturally, and do not on the sea-coast. Thus Catalpas grow
spontaneously on the Mississippi, as far as the latitude of 37°,
and reeds as far as 38°. Parroquets even winter on the Scioto,
in the 39th degree of latitude. In the summer of 1779, when
the thermometer was at 90° at Monticello, and 96° at Williamsburg,
it was 110° at Kaskaskia. Perhaps the mountain,
which overhangs this village on the north side, may, by its reflection,
have contributed somewhat to produce this heat. The
difference of temperature of the air at the sea-coast, or on the
Chesapeake bay, and at the Alleghany, has not been ascertained;
but contemporary observations, made at Williamsburg, or in its
neighborhood, and at Monticello, which is on the most eastern
ridge of the mountains, called the South-West, where they are
intersected by the Rivanna, have furnished a ratio by which that
difference may in some degree be conjectured. These observations
make the difference between Williamsburg and the nearest
mountains, at the position before mentioned, to be on an
average 6⅓° of Fahrenheit's thermometer. Some allowance,
however, is to be made for the difference of latitude between
these two places, the latter being 38° 8' 17", which is 52' 22"
north of the former. By contemporary observations of between
five and six weeks, the averaged and almost unvaried difference
of the height of mercury in the barometer, at those two places,
was .784 of an inch, the atmosphere at Monticello being so
much the lightest, that is to say, about one-thirty-seventh of its
whole weight. It should be observed, however, that the hill of
Monticello is of five hundred feet perpendicular height above the
river which washes its base. This position being nearly central
between our northern and southern boundaries, and between the
bay and Alleghany, may be considered as furnishing the best
average of the temperature of our climate. Williamsburg is
much too near the south-eastern corner to give a fair idea of our
general temperature.
But a more remarkable difference is in the winds which prevail
in the different parts of the country. The following table
exhibits a comparative view of the winds prevailing at Williamsburg,
and at Monticello. It is formed by reducing nine months'
observations at Monticello to four principal points, to wit, the
north-east, south-east, south-west, and north-west; these points
being perpendicular to, or parallel with our coast, mountains, and
rivers; and by reducing in like manner, an equal number of observations,
to wit, four hundred and twenty-one from the preceding
table of winds at Williamsburg, taking them proportionably
from every point:
N.E. S.E. S.W. N.W. Total.
Williamsburg 127 61 132 101 421
Monticello 32 91 126 172 421
By this it may be seen that the south-west wind prevails
equally at both places; that the north-east is, next to this, the
principal wind towards the sea-coast, and the north-west is the
predominant wind at the mountains. The difference between
these two winds to sensation, and in fact, is very great. The
north-east is loaded with vapor, insomuch, that the salt-makers
have found that their crystals would not shoot while that blows;
it brings a distressing chill, and is heavy and oppressive to the
spirits. The north-west is dry, cooling, elastic, and animating.
The eastern and south-eastern breezes come on generally in the
afternoon. They have advanced into the country very sensibly
within the memory of people now living. They formerly did
not penetrate far above Williamsburg. They are now frequent
at Richmond, and every now and then reach the mountains.
They deposit most of their moisture, however, before they get
that far. As the lands become more cleared, it is probable they
will extend still further westward.
Going out into the open air, in the temperate, and warm
months of the year, we often meet with bodies of warm air,
which passing by us in two or three seconds, do not afford time
to the most sensible thermometer to seize their temperature.
Judging from my feelings only, I think they approach the ordinary
heat of the human body. Some of them, perhaps, go a
little beyond it. They are of about twenty to thirty feet diameter
horizontally. Of their height we have no experience, but
probably they are globular volumes wafted or rolled along with
the wind. But whence taken, where found, or how generated?
They are not to be ascribed to volcanos, because we have none.
They do not happen in the winter when the farmers kindle large
fires in clearing up their grounds. They are not confined to the
spring season, when we have fires which traverse whole counties,
consuming the leaves which have fallen from the trees. And
they are too frequent and general to be ascribed to accidental
fires. I am persuaded their cause must be sought for in the atmosphere
itself, to aid us in which I know but of these constant
circumstances: a dry air; a temperature as warm, at least, as that
of the spring or autumn; and a moderate current of wind.
They are most frequent about sun-set; rare in the middle parts
of the day; and I do not recollect having ever met with them in
the morning.
The variation in the weight of our atmosphere, as indicated
by the barometer, is not equal to two inches of mercury. During
twelve months' observation at Williamsburg, the extremes
29 and 30.86 inches, the difference being 1.86 of an inch; and
in nine months, during which the height of the mercury was
noted at Monticello, the extremes were 28.48 and 29.69 inches,
the variation being 1.21 of an inch. A gentleman, who has observed
his barometer many years, assures me it has never varied
two inches. Contemporary observations made at Monticello and
Williamsburg, proved the variations in the weight of air to be
simultaneous and corresponding in these two places.
Our changes from heat to cold, and cold to heat, are very sudden
and great. The mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer has
been known to descend from 92° to 47° in thirteen hours.
It was taken for granted, that the preceding table of average
heat will not give a false idea on this subject, as it proposes to
state only the ordinary heat and cold of each month, and not
those which are extraordinary. At Williamsburg, in August
1766, the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer was at 98°, corresponding
with 29⅓ of Reaumur. At the same place in January
1780, it was 6°, corresponding with 11½ below zero of Reaumur.
I believe[45] these may be considered to be nearly the extremes
of heat and cold in that part of the country. The latter
may most certainly, as that time York river, at Yorktown, was
frozen over, so that people walked across it; a circumstance
which proves it to have been colder than the winter of 1740,
1741, usually called the cold winter, when York river did not
freeze over at that place. In the same season of 1780, Chesapeake
bay was solid, from its head to the mouth of Potomac.
At Annapolis, where it is 5¼ miles over between the nearest
points of land, the ice was from five to seven inches thick quite
across, so that loaded carriages went over on it. Those, our extremes
of heat and cold, of 6° and 98°, were indeed very distressing
to us, and were thought to put the extent of the human
constitution to considerable trial. Yet a Siberian would have
considered them as scarcely a sensible variation. At Jenniseitz
in that country, in latitude 58° 27', we are told that the cold in
1735 sunk the mercury by Fahrenheit's scale to 126° below nothing;
and the inhabitants of the same country use stove rooms
two or three times a week, in which they stay two hours at a
time, the atmosphere of which raises the mercury to 135° above
nothing. Late experiments show that the human body will
exist in rooms heated to 140° of Reaumur, equal to 347° of
Fahrenheit's, and 135° above boiling water. The hottest point
of the twenty-four hours is about four o'clock, P. M., and the
dawn of day the coldest.
The access of frost in autumn, and its recess the spring, do
not seem to depend merely on the degree of cold; much less on
the air's being at the freezing point. White frosts are frequent
when the thermometer is at 47°, have killed young plants of
Indian corn at 48°, and have been known at 54°. Black frost,
and even ice, have been produced at 38½°, which is 6½ degrees
above the freezing point. That other circumstances must be
combined with this cold to produce frost, is evident from this
also, on the higher parts of mountains, where it is absolutely
colder than in the plains on which they stand, frosts do not appear
so early by a considerable space of time in autumn, and go
off sooner in the spring, than in the plains. I have known frosts
so severe as to kill the hickory trees round about Monticello, and
yet not injure the tender fruit blossoms then in bloom on the top
and higher parts of the mountain; and in the course of forty
years, during which it had been settled, there have been but
two instances of a general loss of fruit on it; while in the circumjacent
country, the fruit has escaped but twice in the last
seven years. The plants of tobacco, which grow from the roots
of those which have been cut off in the summer, are frequently
green here at Christmas. This privilege against the frost is undoubtedly
combined with the want of dew on the mountains.
That the dew is very rare on their higher parts, I may say with
certainty, from twelve years' observations, having scarcely ever,
during that time, seen an unequivocal proof of its existence on
them at all during summer. Severe frosts in the depth of winter
prove that the region of dews extends higher in that season than
the tops of the mountains; but certainly, in the summer season,
the vapors, by the time they attain that height, are so attenuated
as not to subside and form a dew when the sun retires.
The weavil has not yet ascended the high mountains.
A more satisfactory estimate of our climate to some, may perhaps
be formed, by noting the plants which grow here, subject,
however, to be killed by our severest colds. These are the fig,
pomegranate, artichoke, and European walnut. In mild winters,
lettuce and endive require no shelter; but, generally, they need a
slight covering. I do not know that the want of long moss,
reed, myrtle, swamp laurel, holly, and cypress, in the upper
country proceeds from a greater degree of cold, nor that they
were ever killed with any degree of cold, nor that they were
ever killed with any degree of cold in the lower country. The
aloe lived in Williamsburg, in the open air, through the severe
winter of 1779, 1780.
A change in our climate, however, is taking place very sensibly.
Both heats and colds are become much more moderate
within the memory even of the middle-aged. Snows are less
frequent and less deep. They do not often lie, below the mountains,
more than one, two, or three days, and very rarely a week.
They are remembered to have been formerly frequent, deep, and
of long continuance. The elderly inform me, the earth used to be
covered with snow about three months in every year. The
rivers, which then seldom failed to freeze over in the course of
the winter, scarcely ever do so now. This change has produced
an unfortunate fluctuation between heat and cold, in the spring
of the year, which is very fatal to fruits. From the year 1741
to 1769, an interval of twenty-eight years, there was no instance
of fruit killed by the frost in the neighborhood of Monticello.
An intense cold, produced by constant snows, kept the buds
locked up till the sun could obtain, in the spring of the year, so
fixed an ascendency as to dissolve those snows, and protect the
buds, during their development, from every danger of returning
cold. The accumulated snows of the winter remaining to be
dissolved all together in the spring, produced those overflowings
of our rivers, so frequent then, and so rare now.
Having had occasion to mention the particular situation of
Monticello for other purposes, I will just take notice that its elevation
affords an opportunity of seeing a phenomenon which is
rare at land, though frequent at sea. The seamen call it _looming_.
Philosophy is as yet in the rear of the seamen, for so far
from having accounted for it, she has not given it a name. Its
principal effect is to make distant objects appear larger, in opposition
to the general law of vision, by which they are diminished.
I knew an instance, at Yorktown, from whence the
water prospect eastwardly is without termination, wherein a
canoe with three men, at a great distance was taken for a ship
with its three masts. I am little acquainted with the phenomenon
as it shows itself at sea; but at Monticello it is familiar.
There is a solitary mountain about forty miles off in the South,
whose natural shape, as presented to view there, is a regular
cone; but by the effect of looming, it sometimes subsides almost
totally in the horizon; sometimes it rises more acute and more
elevated; sometimes it is hemispherical; and sometimes its sides
are perpendicular, its top flat, and as broad as its base. In short,
it assumes at times the most whimsical shapes, and all these perhaps
successively in the same morning. The blue ridge of
mountains comes into view, in the north-east, at about one hundred
miles distance, and approaching in a direct line, passes by
within twenty miles, and goes off to the south-west. This phenomenon
begins to show itself on these mountains, at about
fifty miles distance, and continues beyond that as far as they are
seen. I remark no particular state, either in the weight, moisture,
or heat of the atmosphere, necessary to produce this. The
only constant circumstances are its appearance in the morning
only, and on objects at least forty or fifty miles distant. In this
latter circumstance, if not in both, it differs from the looming on
the water. Refraction will not account for the metamorphosis.
That only changes the proportions of length and breadth, base
and altitude, preserving the general outlines. Thus it may
make a circle appear elliptical, raise or depress a cone, but by
none of its laws, as yet developed, will it make a circle appear a
square, or a cone a sphere.
FOOTNOTE:
[45] At Paris, in 1753, the mercury in Reaumur's thermometer
was at 30½ above zero, and in 1776, it was at 16 below
zero. The extremities of heat and cold therefore at Paris,
are greater than at Williamsburg, which is in the hottest
part of Virginia.
QUERY VIII.
_The number of its inhabitants?_
The following table shows the number of persons imported
for the establishment of our colony in its infant state, and the
census of inhabitants at different periods, extracted from our historians
and public records, as particularly as I have had opportunities
and leisure to examine them. Successive lines in the
same year show successive periods of time in that year. I have
stated the census in two different columns, the whole inhabitants
having been sometimes numbered, and sometimes the _tythes_
only. This term, with us, includes the free males above sixteen
years of age, and slaves above that age of both sexes. A further
examination of our records would render this history of our population
much more satisfactory and perfect, by furnishing a greater
number of intermediate terms. These, however, which are
here stated will enable us to calculate, with a considerable degree
of precision, the rate at which we have increased. During
the infancy of the colony, while numbers were small, wars, importations,
and other accidental circumstances render the progression
fluctuating and irregular. By the year 1654, however,
it becomes tolerably uniform, importations having in a great
measure ceased from the dissolution of the company, and the inhabitants
become too numerous to be sensibly affected by Indian
wars. Beginning at that period, therefore, we find that from
thence to the year 1772, our tythes had increased from 7,209 to
153,000. The whole term being of one hundred and eighteen
years, yields a duplication once in every twenty-seven and a
quarter years. The intermediate enumerations taken in 1700,
1748, and 1759, furnish proofs of the uniformity of this progression.
Should this rate of increase continue, we shall have
between six and seven millions of inhabitants within ninety-five
years. If we suppose our country to be bounded, at some
future day, by the meridian of the mouth of the Great Kanhaway,
(within which it has been before conjectured, are 64,461
square miles) there will then be one hundred inhabitants for
every square mile, which is nearly the state of population in the
British Islands.
--------+--------------------+------------------------+-----------
Years. | Settlers Imported. | Census of Inhabitants. | Census of
| | | Tythes.
--------|--------------------+------------------------+-----------
1607 | 100 | ... | ...
| ... | 40 | ...
| 120 | ... | ...
1608 | ... | 130 | ...
| 70 | ... | ...
1609 | ... | 490 | ...
| 16 | ... | ...
| ... | 60 | ...
1610 | 150 | ... | ...
| ... | 200 | ...
1611 | 3 ship loads. | ... | ...
| 300 | ... | ...
1612 | 80 | ... | ...
1617 | ... | 400 | ...
1618 | 200 | ... | ...
| 40 | ... | ...
| ... | 600 | ...
1619 | 1,216 | ... | ...
1621 | 1,300 | ... | ...
1622 | ... | 3,800 | ...
| ... | 2,500 | ...
1628 | ... | 3,000 | ...
1632 | ... | ... | 2,000
1644 | ... | ... | 4,822
1645 | ... | ... | 5,000
1652 | ... | ... | 7,000
1654 | ... | ... | 7,209
1700 | ... | ... | 22,000
1748 | ... | ... | 82,100
1759 | ... | ... | 105,000
1772 | ... | ... | 153,000
1782 | ... | 567,614 |
--------+--------------------+------------------------+-----------
Here I will beg leave to propose a doubt. The present desire
of America is to produce rapid population by as great importations
of foreigners as possible. But is this founded in good
policy? The advantage proposed is the multiplication of numbers.
Now let us suppose (for example only) that, in this state,
we could double our numbers in one year by the importation of
foreigners; and this is a greater accession than the most sanguine
advocate for emigration has a right to expect. Then I
say, beginning with a double stock, we shall attain any given
degree of population only twenty-seven years, and three months
sooner than if we proceed on our single stock. If we propose
four millions and a half as a competent population for this State,
we should be fifty-four and a half years attaining it, could we at
once double our numbers; and eighty-one and three quarter
years, if we rely on natural propagation, as may be seen by the
following tablet:
Proceeding on Proceeding on
our present stock. a double stock.
1781 567,614 1,135,228
1808¼ 1,135,228 2,270,456
1835½ 2,270,456 4,540,912
1862¾ 4,540,912
In the first column are stated periods of twenty-seven and a
quarter years; in the second are our numbers at each period, as
they will be if we proceed on our actual stock; and in the third
are what they would be, at the same periods, were we to set out
from the double of our present stock. I have taken the term of
four million and a half of inhabitants for example's sake only.
Yet I am persuaded it is a greater number than the country
spoken of, considering how much inarable land it contains, can
clothe and feed without a material change in the quality of their
diet. But are there no inconveniences to be thrown into the
scale against the advantage expected from a multiplication of
numbers by the importation of foreigners? It is for the happiness
of those united in society to harmonize as much as possible
in matters which they must of necessity transact together. Civil
government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration
must be conducted by common consent. Every
species of government has its specific principles. Ours perhaps
are more peculiar than those of any other in the universe. It is
a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution,
with others derived from natural right and natural reason. To
these nothing can be more opposed than the maxims of absolute
monarchies. Yet from such we are to expect the greatest number
of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of
the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if
able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded
licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another.
It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of
temperate liberty. These principles, with their language, they
will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers,
they will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it
their spirit, warp and bias its directions, and render it a heterogenous,
incoherent, distracted mass. I may appeal to experience,
during the present contest, for a verification of these conjectures.
But, if they be not certain in event, are they not possible, are
they not probable? Is it not safer to wait with patience twenty-seven
years and three months longer, for the attainment of any
degree of population desired or expected? May not our government
be more homogeneous, more peaceable, more durable?
Suppose twenty millions of republican Americans thrown all of
a sudden into France, what would be the condition of that kingdom?
If it would be more turbulent, less happy, less strong, we
may believe that the addition of half a million of foreigners to
our present numbers would produce a similar effect here. If
they come of themselves they are entitled to all the rights of
citizenship; but I doubt the expediency of inviting them by extraordinary
encouragements. I mean not that these doubts
should be extended to the importation of useful artificers. The
policy of that measure depends on very different considerations.
Spare no expense in obtaining them. They will after a while
go to the plough and the hoe; but, in the mean time, they will
teach us something we do not know. It is not so in agriculture.
The indifferent state of that among us does not proceed from a
want of knowledge merely; it is from our having such quantities
of land to waste as we please. In Europe the object is to
make the most of their land, labor being abundant; here it is to
make the most of our labor, land being abundant.
It will be proper to explain how the numbers for the year
1782 have been obtained; as it was not from a perfect census of
the inhabitants. It will at the same time develope the proportion
between the free inhabitants and slaves. The following return
of taxable articles for that year was given in.
53,289 free males above twenty-one years of age.
211,698 slaves of all ages and sexes.
23,766 not distinguished in the returns, but said to be tytheable
slaves.
195,439 horses.
609,734 cattle.
5,126 wheels of riding-carriages.
191 taverns.
There were no returns from the eight counties of Lincoln,
Jefferson, Fayette, Monongahela, Yohogania, Ohio, Northampton,
and York. To find the number of slaves which should
have been returned instead of the 23,766 tytheables, we must
mention that some observations on a former census had given
reason to believe that the numbers above and below sixteen
years of age were equal. The double of this number, therefore,
to wit, 47,532 must be added to 211,698, which will give us
259,230 slaves of all ages and sexes. To find the number of
free inhabitants we must repeat the observation that those above
and below sixteen are nearly equal. But as the number 53,289
omits the males below sixteen and twenty-one we must supply
them from conjecture. On a former experiment it had appeared
that about one-third of our militia, that is, of the males between
sixteen and fifty, were unmarried. Knowing how early marriage
takes place here, we shall not be far wrong in supposing
that the unmarried part of our militia are those between sixteen
and twenty-one. If there be young men who do not marry till
after twenty-one, there are many who marry before that age.
But as men above fifty were not included in the militia, we will
suppose the unmarried, or those between sixteen and twenty-one,
to be one-fourth of the whole number above sixteen, then we
have the following calculation:
53,289 free males above twenty-one years of age.
17,763 free males between sixteen and twenty-one.
17,052 free males under sixteen.
142,104 free males of all ages.
-------
284,208 free inhabitants of all ages.
259,230 slaves of all ages.
-------
543,438 inhabitants, exclusive of the eight counties from
which were no returns. In these eight counties in the years
1779 and 1780, were 3,161 militia. Say then,
3,161 free males above the age of sixteen.
3,161 free males under sixteen.
6,322 free females.
-----
12,644 free inhabitants in these eight counties. To find the
number of slaves, say, as 284,208 to 259,230, so is 12,644
to 11,532. Adding the third of these numbers to the first,
and the fourth to the second, we have,
296,852 free inhabitants.
270,762 slaves.
-------
567,614 inhabitants of every age, sex and condition.
But 296,852, the number of free inhabitants, are to 270,762, the
number of slaves, nearly as 11 to 10. Under the mild treatment
our slaves experience, and their wholesome, though coarse food,
this blot in our country increases as fast, or faster than the
whites. During the regal government we had at one time obtained
a law which imposed such a duty on the importation of
slaves as amounted nearly to a prohibition, when one inconsiderate
assembly, placed under a peculiarity of circumstance,
repealed the law. This repeal met a joyful sanction from the
then reigning sovereign, and no devices, no expedients, which
could ever be attempted by subsequent assemblies, and they seldom
met without attempting them, could succeed in getting the
royal assent to a renewal of the duty. In the very first session
held under the republican government, the assembly passed a law
for the perpetual prohibition of the importation of slaves. This
will in some measure stop the increase of this great political and
moral evil, while the minds of our citizens may be ripening for
a complete emancipation of human nature.
QUERY IX.
_The number and condition of the Militia and Regular Troops,
and their Pay?_
The following is a state of the militia, taken from returns of
1780 and 1781, except in those counties marked with an asterisk,
the returns from which are somewhat older.
Every able-bodied freeman, between the ages of sixteen and
fifty, is enrolled in the militia. Those of every county are
formed into companies, and these again into one or more battalions,
according to the numbers in the county. They are commanded
by colonels, and other subordinate officers, as in the
regular service. In every county is a county-lieutenant, who
commands the whole militia of his county, but ranks only as a
colonel in the field. We have no general officers always existing.
These are appointed occasionally, when an invasion or insurrection
happens, and their commission determines with the
occasion. The governor is head of the military, as well as civil
power. The law requires every militia-man to provide himself
with the arms usual in the regular service. But this injunction
was always indifferently complied with, and the arms they had,
have been so frequently called for to arm the regulars, that in
the lower parts of the country they are entirely disarmed. In
the middle country a fourth or fifth part of them may have such
firelocks as they had provided to destroy the noxious animals
which infest their farms; and on the western side of the Blue
ridge they are generally armed with rifles. The pay of our
militia, as well as of our regulars, is that of the continental regulars.
The condition of our regulars, of whom we have none
but continentals, and part of a battalion of state troops, is so constantly
on the change, that a state of it at this day would not be
its state a month hence. It is much the same with the condition
of the other continental troops, which is well enough
known.
+--------------+--------------+---------+
| Situation. | Counties. | Militia.|
+--------------+--------------+---------+
|Westward of {|Lincoln | 600 |
|the {|Jefferson | 300 |
|Alleghany {|Fayette | 156 |
|4,458. {|Ohio | .. |
| {|Monongalia | *1,000 |
| {|Washington | *829 |
| {|Montgomery | 1,071 |
| {|Greenbriar | 502 |
| | | |
|Between the {|Hampshire | 930 |
|Alleghany {|Berkeley | *1,100 |
| and {|Frederick | 1,143 |
|Blue Ridge. {|Shenando | *925 |
|7,673. {|Rockingham | 875 |
| {|Augusta | 1,375 |
| {|Rockbridge | *625 |
| {|Boutetourt | *700 |
| | | |
|Between the {|Loudoun | 1,746 |
|Blue Ridge {|Faquier | 1,078 |
|and Tide {|Culpepper | 1,513 |
|Waters. {|Spotsylvania | 480 |
|18,828. {|Orange | *600 |
| {|Louisa | 603 |
| {|Goochland | *550 |
| {|Fluvanna | *296 |
| {|Albemarle | 873 |
| {|Amherst | 896 |
| {|Buckingham | *625 |
| {|Bedford | 1,300 |
| {|Henry | 1,004 |
| {|Pittsylvania | *725 |
| {|Halifax | *1,139 |
| {|Charlotte | 612 |
| {|Prince Edward | 589 |
| {|Cumberland | 408 |
| {|Powhatan | 330 |
| {|Amelia | *1,125 |
| {|Lunenburg | 677 |
| {|Mecklenburg | 1,100 |
| {|Brunswick | 559 |
+--------------+--------------+---------+
| On the Tide Waters, and in that |
| Parallel. 19,012. |
+--------------+--------------+---------+
| Situation. | Counties. | Militia.|
+--------------+--------------+---------+
|Between {|Greensville | 500 |
|James River {|Dinwiddie | *750 |
|and {|Chesterfield | 665 |
|Carolina. {|Prince George | 328 |
|6,959. {|Surrey | 380 |
| {|Sussex | *700 |
| {|Southampton | 874 |
| {|Isle of White | *600 |
| {|Nansemond | *644 |
| {|Norfolk | *880 |
| {|Prince Anne | *594 |
| | | |
|Between {|Henrico | 619 |
|James & {|Hanover | 706 |
|York {|New Kent | *418 |
|rivers. {|Charles City | 286 |
|3,009. {|James City | 235 |
| {|Williamsburgh | 129 |
| {|York | *244 |
| {|Warwick | *100 |
| {|Elizabeth City| 182 |
| | | |
|Bet. York & {|Caroline | 805 |
|Rappahannock.{|King William | 436 |
|3,269. {|King and Queen| 500 |
| {|Essex | 468 |
| {|Middlesex | *210 |
| {|Gloucester | 850 |
| | | |
|Betw'n {|Fairfax | 652 |
|Rappahannock {|Prince William| 614 |
|and {|Stafford | *500 |
|Powtomac. {|King George | 483 |
|4,137. {|Richmond | 412 |
| {|Westmoreland | 544 |
| {|Northumberland| 630 |
| {|Lancaster | 332 |
| | | |
|East'n Shore.{|Accomac | *1,208 |
|1,638. {|Northampton | *430 |
| +---------+
| Whole Militia of the State | 49,971 |
+-----------------------------+---------+
QUERY X.
_The Marine?_
Before the present invasion of this State by the British, under
the command of General Phillips, we had three vessels of sixteen
guns, one of fourteen, five small gallies, and two or three armed
boats. They were generally so badly manned as seldom to be
in a condition for service. Since the perfect possession of our
rivers assumed by the enemy, I believe we are left with a single
armed boat only.
QUERY XI.
_A description of the Indians established in that State?_
When the first effectual settlement of our colony was made,
which was in 1607, the country from the sea-coast to the mountains,
and from the Potomac to the most southern waters of James'
river, was occupied by upwards of forty different tribes of Indians.
Of these the _Powhatans_, the _Mannahoacs_, and _Monacans_,
were the most powerful. Those between the seacoast and
falls of the rivers, were in amity with one another, and attached
to the _Powhatans_ as their link of union. Those between the
falls of the rivers and the mountains, were divided into two confederacies;
the tribes inhabiting the head waters of Potomac and
Rappahannock, being attached to the _Mannahoacs_; and those
on the upper parts of James' river to the _Monacans_. But the
_Monacans_ and their friends were in amity with the _Mannahoacs_
and their friends, and waged joint and perpetual war against the
_Powhatans_. We are told that the _Powhatans_, _Mannahoacs_,
and _Monacans_, spoke languages so radically different, that interpreters
were necessary when they transacted business. Hence
we may conjecture, that this was not the case between all the
tribes, and, probably, that each spoke the language of the nation
to which it was attached; which we know to have been the case
in many particular instances. Very possibly there may have
been anciently three different stocks, each of which multiplying
in a long course of time, had separated into so many little societies.
This practice results from the circumstance of their
having never submitted themselves to any laws, any coercive
power, any shadow of government. Their only controls are
their manners, and that moral sense of right and wrong, which,
like the sense of tasting and feeling in every man, makes a part
of his nature. An offence against these is punished by contempt,
by exclusion from society, or, where the case is serious, as that
of murder, by the individuals whom it concerns. Imperfect as
this species of coercion may seem, crimes are very rare among
them; insomuch that were it made a question, whether no law,
as among the savage Americans, or too much law, as among
the civilized Europeans, submits man to the greatest evil, one
who has seen both conditions of existence would pronounce it
to be the last; and that the sheep are happier of themselves, than
under care of the wolves. It will be said, that great societies
cannot exist without government. The savages, therefore, break
them into small ones.
The territories of the _Powhatan_ confederacy, south of the Potomac,
comprehended about eight thousand square miles, thirty
tribes, and two thousand four hundred warriors. Captain Smith
tells us, that within sixty miles of Jamestown were five thousand
people, of whom one thousand five hundred were warriors.
From this we find the proportion of their warriors to their whole
inhabitants, was as three to ten. The _Powhatan_ confederacy,
then, would consist of about eight thousand inhabitants, which
was one for every square mile; being about the twentieth part
of our present population in the same territory, and the hundredth
of that of the British islands.
Besides these were the _Nottoways_, living on Nottoway river,
the _Meherrins_ and _Tuteloes_ on Meherrin river, who were connected
with the Indians of Carolina, probably with the Chowanocs.
NORTH.
+-------------+----------------------------------------------+
| | MANNAHOACS. |
+-------------+-------------+--------------+---------+-------+
| | Tribes. |Country. |Cf. Towns|Warr's.|
| | | | +-------+
| | | | | 1669. |
| +-------------+--------------+---------+-------+
|Between {|Whonkenties. |Fauquier | | |
|Patowinac {|Tegninaties. |Culpepper. | | |
|and {|Ontponies. |Orange. | | |
|Rappahannoc.{|Tauxitanians.|Fauquier. | | |
| {|Hassinungaes.|Culpepper. | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
WEST.| {| | | | |EAST
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
|Bet. {|Stegarakies. |Orange. | | |
|Rappahannoc {|Shackakonies.|Spotsylvania. | | |
|& York. {|Manahoacs. |Stafford. | | |
| {| |Spotsylvania. | | |
+-------------+-------------+--------------+---------+-------+
|Between | |
| York | MONACANS. |
| and +-------------+--------------+---------+-------+
|James. {|Monacans. |James river, |Fork of | |
| {| | above the | James | |
| {| | falls. | river. | 30 |
| {| | | | |
| {|Monasiccapanoes.|Louisa. | | |
| {| |Fluvanna. | | |
| | | | | |
|Between {|Monahassanoes. |Bedford. | | |
|James & {| |Buckingham.| | |
|Carolina. {|Massinacacs. |Cumberland.| | |
| {|Mohemenchoes. |Powhatan. | | |
|Eastern | | | | |
|shore. | | | | |
| | | | | |
+-------------+----------------+-----------+---------+-------+
SOUTH.
NORTH
+-------------+----------------+------------------------------------------+
| | POWHATANS. |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+------------------------+
| | Tribes. | Country. | Chief Towns. |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| +----------------+-----------------+------------------------+
|Between |Tauxenents. |Fairfax. |About Gen. Washington's.|
|Patowinac |Patówomekes. } |Stafford. |Pawtomac cr. |
|and | } |King George. | |
|Rappahannoc. |Cuttatawomans. |King George. |About Lamb Creek. |
| |Pissasecs. } |King George. |Above Leeds Town. |
| | } |Richmond. | |
| |Onaumanients. |Westmoreland. |Nomony river. |
| |Rappahànocs. |Richmond co. |Rappahanoc creek. |
| |Moàughtacunds.} |Lancaster. |Moratico river. |
| | } |Richmond. | |
| |Secacaconies. |Northumberland. |Coan river. |
| |Wighcocòmicoes. |Northumberland. |Wicocomico river. |
| |Cuttatawomans. |Lancaster. |Corotoman. |
+-------------+----------------+--------------- -+------------------------+
|Bet. | | | |
|Rappahannoc |Nantaughtacunds.|Essex. Caroline. |Port Tobacco creek. |
|& York. |Màttapomènts. |Mattapony river. | ... |
| |Pamùnkies. |King William. |Romuncock. |
| |Wérowocòmicos. |Gloucester. |About Rosewell. |
| |Pay-ankatonks. |Piankatank river.|Turk's Ferry. Grimesby. |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+------------------------+
|Between York |Youghtanunds. |Pamunkey river. | ... |
|and James. |Chickahòminies. |Chickahominy r. |Orapaks. |
| |Powhatans. |Henrico. |Powhatan. Mayo's. |
| |Arrowhàtocs. |Henrico. |Arrohatocs. |
| |Wèanocs. |Charles city. |Weynoke. |
| |Paspahèghes.} |Charles city. |Sandy-Point. |
| | } |James city. | |
| |Chiskiacs. |York. |Chiskiac. |
| |Kecoughtáns. |Elizabeth city. |Roscows. |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+------------------------+
|Between James|Appamàttocs. |Chesterfield. |Bermuda Hundred. |
|& Carolina. |Quiocohànoes. |Surry. |About Upp. Chipoak. |
|Eastern |Wàrrasqueaks. |Isle of Wight. |Warrasqueoc. .. |
|shore. |Nasamónds. |Nansamond. |About mouth W. branch |
| |Chèsapeaks. |Princess Anne. |About Lynhaven riv. |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+------------------------+
|Eastern |Accohanocs. }|Accom. |Accohanoc river. |
|shore. | }|Northampton. | |
| {Accamàcks. |Northampton. |About Cheriton's. |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+------------------------+
SOUTH
NORTH
+--------------------------------------+----------------------+
| POWHATANS | |
+-----------------------+--------------+----------------------|
| Chief Towns. |Warriors. | |
| |-----+--------| |
| |1607.|1669. | |
+-----------------------+-----+--------|----------------------+
|About Gen. Washington's| 40 | |{By the name of |
|Pawtomac cr. |200 | | Matchotics, |
| | | |{U. Matchodic, |
|About Lamb Creek. | 20} | 60 |{Nanzaticos, |
|Above Leeds Town. | ..} | |{Nauzatico, Appomatox,|
| | | |{Matox. |
|Nomony river. |100 | | |
|Rappahanoc creek. |100 | 30 |{By the name of |
|Moratico river. | 80 | 40 |{Totuskeys. |
| | | | | EAST.
|Coan river. | 30 | | |
|Wicocomico river. |130 | 70 | |
|Corotoman. | 30 | | |
|Port Tobacco creek. |150 | 60 | |
| ... | 30 | 20 | |
|Romuncock. |300 | 50 | |
|About Rosewell. | 40 | | |
|Turk's Ferry. Grimesby.| 55 | | |
| ... | 60 | | |
|Orapaks. |250 | 60 | |
|Powhatan. Mayo's. | 40 | 10 | |
|Arrohatocs. | 30 | | |
|Weynoke. |100 | 15 | |
|Sandy-Point. | 40 | | |
| | | +----------------+-----+
|Chiskiac. | 45 | 15 | |1699.|
|Roscows. | 20 | +----------------+-----+
|Bermuda Hundred. | 60 | 50 |}Nottoways. | .. |
|About Upp. Chipoak. | 25 |3 Pohics|}Meherrics. | 90 |
|Warrasqueoc. .. | | |}Tuteloes. | 50 |
|A't mouth W. branch |200 | 45 | | |
|About Lynhaven riv. |100 | +----------------+-----+
|Accohanoc river. | 40 | | |
| | | | |
|About Cheriton's. | 80 | | |
+-----------------------+-----+--------+----------------------+
SOUTH
The preceding table contains a state of these several tribes,
according to their confederacies and geographical situation, with
their numbers when we first became acquainted with them,
where these numbers are known. The numbers of some of
them are again stated as they were in the year 1669, when an
attempt was made by assembly to enumerate them. Probably
the enumeration is imperfect, and in some measure conjectural,
and that a farther search into the records would furnish many
more particulars. What would be the melancholy sequel of their
history, may, however, be argued from the census of 1669; by
which we discover that the tribes therein enumerated were, in
the space of sixty-two years, reduced to about one-third of their
former numbers. Spirituous liquors, the small-pox, war, and an
abridgement of territory to a people who lived principally on the
spontaneous productions of nature, had committed terrible havoc
among them, which generation, under the obstacles opposed to
it among them, was not likely to make good. That the lands
of this country were taken from them by conquest, is not so
general a truth as is supposed. I find in our historians and
records, repeated proofs of purchase, which cover a considerable
part of the lower country; and many more would doubtless be
found on further search. The upper country, we know, has
been acquired altogether acquired by purchases made in the
most unexceptionable form.
Westward of all these tribes, beyond the mountains, and extending
to the great lakes, were the _Maffawomees_, a most powerful
confederacy, who harassed unremittingly the _Powhatans_
and _Manahoacs_. These were probably the ancestors of tribes
known at present by the name of the _Six Nations_.
Very little can now be discovered of the subsequent history
of these tribes severally. The _Chickahominies_ removed about
the year 1661, to Mattapony river. Their chief, with one from
each of the Pamunkies and Mattaponies, attended the treaty of
Albany in 1685. This seems to have been the last chapter in
their history. They retained, however, their separate name so
late as 1705, and were at length blended with the Pamunkies
and Mattaponies, and exist at present only under their names.
There remain of the _Mattaponies_ three or four men only, and
have more negro than Indian blood in them. They have lost
their language, have reduced themselves, by voluntary sales, to
about fifty acres of land, which lie on the river of their own
name, and have from time to time, been joining the Pamunkies,
from whom they are distant but ten miles. The _Pamunkies_ are
reduced to about ten or twelve men, tolerably pure from mixture
with other colors. The older ones among them preserve
their language in a small degree, which are the last vestiges on
earth, as far as we know, of the Powhatan language. They
have about three hundred acres of very fertile land, on Pamunkey
river, so encompassed by water that a gate shuts in the
whole. Of the _Nottoways_, not a male is left. A few women
constitute the remains of that tribe. They are seated on Nottoway
river, in Southampton country, on very fertile lands. At a
very early period, certain lands were marked out and appropriated
to these tribes, and were kept from encroachment by the authority
of the laws. They have usually had trustees appointed,
whose duty was to watch over their interests, and guard them
from insult and injury.