YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

DIARY IN AMERICA,
&C. &C.

DIARY IN AMERICA.

REMARKS ON ITS INSTITUTIONS.

Part S^wona.

BY
CAPT. MARRYAT, CB.

IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. III.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
1839.

Printed by J. L. Cox and Sons, 75, Great Queen Street,
Lincoln's- Inn Fields.

E^-f

iH

CHAPTER I.
^CANADA.
Of what advantage are the Canadas to Eng
land ?
This question has been put to me, at
least one hundred times since my return from
America. It is argued that the Canadas pro
duce and export nothing except timber, and
that the protecting duty given to Canada tim
ber is not only very severely felt by the mother-
country, but very injurious to her foreign rela
tions. These observations are undeniable ; and I
admit that, as a mere colony compelled to add to
the wealth of England, (sending to her all her
produce, and receiving from her all her supplies),
Canada has been worth less than nothing.
But, admitting this for the present, we will now
VOL. III. B

2 CANADA.
examine whether there are no other grounds
for the retention of the Canadas under our con
trol. Colonies are of value to the mother-country
in two ways. The first is already mentioned,
and in that way, the present advantage of
the Canadas as colonies is abandoned. The
other great importance of colonies is, that
they may be considered as outports, as step
ping-stones, as it were, over the whole world ;
and for the present I shall examine into the
value of these possessions merely in this point
of view. We have many islands or colo
nies under our subjection which are in them
selves not only valueless, but, moreover, ex
tremely expensive to us ; and if every colony
or island is to be valued merely according to
the produce and advantage derived from it by
the mother-country, we must abandon Helio-
goland, Ascension, St. Helena, Malta, and,
even Gibraltar itself. All these, and some
others, are, in point of commerce, Valueless;

CANADA. 3
yet they add much to the security of the coun
try and to our dominion of the seas. This will
be admitted, and we must therefore now exa
mine how far the Canadas may be considered as
valuable under this second point of view.
I have already shewn that the ambition for
territory is one of the diseases, if I may use
the term, of the American people. On that
point they are insatiable, and that they covet
the Canadas is undeniable. Let us inquire into
the reasons why the Americans are so anxious
to possess the Canadas.
There are many. In the first place, they do
not like to have a people subjected to a mo-
narchial form of government as their neigh
bours; they do not like ^hat security of person
and property, and a just administration of the
law, should be found in a thinly-peopled pro
vince, while they cannot obtain those advantages
under their own institutions. It is a reproach
to them. They continually taunt the Cana
dians that they are the only portion of the New
B 2

4 CANADA.
World who have not thrown off the yoke— the
only portion who are not yet free ; and this taunt
has not been without its effect upon the un
thinking portion of the community. What is
the cause of this unusual sympathy ? The ques
tion is already answered.
Another important reason which the Ameri
cans have for the possession of the Canadas is,
that they are the means of easy retaliation on
the part of England in case of aggression. They
render them weak and assailable in case of war.
Had they possession of the Canadas,and our other
provinces, the United States would be almost in
vulnerable. As it is, they become defenceless to the
north, and are moreover exposed to the attack of
all the tribes of Indians concentrated on the wes
tern frontier. Indeed, they never will consider
their territory as complete " in a ring, fence,"
as long as we have possession of the mouths of
the St. Lawrence. They wish to be able to boast
of an inland navigation from nearly the Equator
to the Pole — from the entrance of the Missis
sippi to the exit of the St. Lawrence. Our

CANADA. 5
possession of the Canadas is a check to their
pride and ambition, which are both as boundless
as the territory which they covet.
But there are other reasons equally important.
It is their anxiety to become a manufacturing
as well as a producing nation. Their object is,
that the north should manufacture what the
south produces ; and that, instead of commer
cial relations with England, as at present, that
American cotton-manufactures should be borne
in American bottoms over all the world. This
they consider is the great ultimatum to be arrived
at, and they look forward to it as the source of
immense wealth and increased security to the
Union, and of their wresting from England
the sceptre and dominion of the seas.
It may be said that the United States, if they
want to become a manufacturing nation, have
noiio the power ; but such is not the case. Un
til they can completely shut out English manu
factures, they have not. The price of labour is

6 CANADA.
too dear. Should they increase the tariff, or
duty, upon English goods, the Canadas and
our other provinces will render their efforts
useless, as we have a line of coast of upwards of
2,000 miles, by which we can introduce English
goods to any amount by smuggling, and which
it is impossible for the Americans to guard
against ; and as the West fills up, this importa
tion of English goods would every year in
crease. As long, therefore, as we hold the Ca
nadas, the Americans must be content to be a
very inferior manufacturing nation to ourselves ;
and it may be added that now or never is the
time for the Americans to possess themselves
of the Canadas. They perceive this ; for when
once the Westem States gain the preponderance
in wealth and power, which they will in a few
years, the cause of the Eastern, or manufactur
ing States will be lost. The Western States will
not quarrel with England on account of the
Eastern, but will import our goods direct in

CANADA. 7
exchange for their produce. They themselves
cannot manufacture and they will go to
market where they can purchase cheapest.
But do the views of the Americans extend
no further ? Would they be satisfied if they
obtained the Canadas ? Most assuredly not.
They are too vast in their ideas — too ambitious
in their views. If Canada fell, Nova Scotia would
fall, and thty would obtain what they most covet
— the harbour of Halifax. New Brunswick
would fall, and they would have then driven us
out of our Continental possessions. Would they
stop then ? No ; they never would stop until
they had driven the English to the other side
of the Atlantic. Newfoundland and its fisheries
would be their next prey ; for it, as well as our
other possessions, would then be defenceless.
They would not leave us the West-Indies,
although useless to them. Such is their object
and their eamest desire — an increase of territory
and power for themselves, and the humiliation
of England. The very eagerness with wliich

8 CANADA.
the Americans bring up this question on pur
pose that they may disavow their wishes, is one
of the strongest proofs of their anxiety to
blind us on the subject; but they will never
lose sight of it ; and if they thought they had
any chance of success, there is no expense which
they would not cheerfully incur, no war into
which they would not enter. Let not the Eng
lish be deceived by their asseverations. What
I have now asserted is the fact. The same spirit
which has actuated them in dispossessing the In
dians of territories which they cannot themselves
populate, which prompted the " high-handed
theft" of the Texas from Mexico, will induce
them to adopt any pretext, as soon as they think
they have a chance, to seize upon the Canadas
and our other transatlantic possessions.
If what I have stated be correct, and I am
convinced of its truth myself, it will be evident
that the Canadas, independent of every other
consideration, become a most important outpost
which we must defend and hold possession of.

CANADA, 9
Let it be remembered that every loss to us, is an
increase to the power of America — an increase
to her security and to her maritime strength ;
that whatever ber assertions may be, she is
deadly hostile to us, from the very circumstance
that she considers that we prevent her aggran
dizement and prosperity. America can only
rise to the zenith, which she would attain,
by the fall of England, and every disaster to
this country is to her a source of exultation.
That there are many Americans of a contrary
opinion I grant ; that the city of New York
would prefer the present amicable relations is
certain ; but I have here expressed the feel
ings of the majority, and it must be remem
bered that in America it is the majority who
decide all questions.
To prove that I am not too severe upon
the Americans in the above remarks, let me
refer to their own printed documents.
The reader must be informed that the Cana
dian rebels, with their American auxiliaries.

10 CANADA.
made incursions into our territory near the
boundary line, burnt the houses, took away the
cattle, and left destitute those parties who were
considered as loyal and well affected, or, in fact,
those whd refused to arm and join the rebels.
When pursued by the militia, or other forces,
the rebel parties hastened over the boundary-
line, where they were secure under the Ameri
can protection. This system of protection natu
rally irritated the loyal Canadians, who threa
tened to cross the boundary and attack the
Americans in return. It was, however, only a
threat, never being put in execution ; but
upon the strength of this threat, application
was made to the Governor in the State of Ver
mont, requesting that the arms in the American
arsenals might be supplied to the citizens for
their protection. The Governor very properly
refused, and issued a proclamation warning the
citizens of Vermont not to interfere. This
offended the majority, who forthwith called a
meeting at St. Albans, the results of which

CANADA. i 1
were ordered to be printed and circulated. I
have a copy of these reports and resolutions,
from which I shall now give some extracts.
Let it be observed that these are not the reso
lutions of. a few lawless and undisciplined peo
ple, bordering on the lakes, as the sympathizers
are stated to have been. The title of Honorable
denotes that the parties are either Members of
the State or Federal Governments ; and, indeed,
the parties whose names appear on the committee,
are all of the first respectability in the State.
" Meeting of the Freemen at St. Albans.
"Agreeable to a notice circulated throughout
the county, about forty-eight hours previous to
the meeting, two thousand of the freemen from
the different towns in the county assembled to
take into consideration a recent proclamation of
the Governor, and an extraordinary letter ac
companying the same, and also to express their
sentiments on Canadian affairs, especially such
as have recently transpired in the neighbourhood
of latitude forty-five degrees.

12 CANADA,
" Jeptha Bradley, Esq., of St. Albans, was
called to the chair, and, agreeable to a resolve of
the meeting, appointed the Hon. S. S. Brown,
Hon. Timothy Foster, and G. W. Kendall,
Esq., a committee to nominate officers?
" The following gentlemen were nominated
and appointed : —
.flow. Austin Fuller, of 'E.noshxir^, President.

Vice Presidents.

Col. S. B, Hazeltine, .

Bakersfield.

Hon. Horace Eaton, .

Enosburgh.

Doctor I. S. Webster, ,

Berkshire.

William Green, Esq., .

Sheldon.

Martin Wires, Esq., .

Cambridge.

Hon. Timothy Foster, .

Swanton.

Secretaries.

J. J. Beardsley, . . .

Sheldon.

Zoroaster Fisk, . . .

Swanton.

J' The following gentlemen were appointed a
committee to prepare a report and resolutions
for the meeting : —

CANADA. 13
Henry Adams, Esq., . St. Albans.
N. L. Whittemore, Esq., Swanton.
R. A. Shattuck, Esq., . Sheldon.
Bradley Barlow, Esq., . Fairfield.
1. B. Bowdish, Esq., . Swanton.
" The letter of certain citizens of Burlington,
and the proclamation of his Excellency, Silas
H. Jennison, were then read by the Secretary,
J. J. Beardsley, Esq. After the reading of
the letter and the proclamation the meeting was
addressed by several gentlemen, in an eloquent
and impressive manner, and their remarks seve
rally called forth great applause.
" The committee, on resolutions by Henry
Adams, Esq., chairman, then presented the
following report and resolutions, which were
unanimously adopted.''"'
After having in the report stated that threats
have been made, they then attack the legality
of the Governor's proclamation and conduct,, as
follows : —
" The committee have no evidence to show

14 CANADA,
that the execution of the threats above-men
tioned, or that any invasion of the rights of
American citizens, would knowingly be permitted
by the existing govemment in Canada, or ap
proved of by a majority of the citizens in the
Canadian townships ; but when they bear in
mind, that civil law is suspended in Canada,
and in its place are substituted the summary
proceedings of military courts and the capricious
wills of petty military officers ; when they con
sider the excited and embittered feelings which
prevail along .the frontier, and whicli some have
studied to inflame, and also the character of a
portion of the population which borders upon
our territory, they deem it not improbable that
acts of violence might be attempted, and even
that a gang of marauders might be gathered.
together, and led to make some petty invasion
into our territory, disturbing the public peace,
and committing acts of outrage. If this be
deemed improbable, still a state of suspense and
doubt is not to be endured. Every family on

CANADA. 15
the frontier should live in a state of undisturbed
repose. The ability not only to resist aggression,
but to redress injuries with summary justice,
furnishes a certain, if not the only guarantee of
perfect quiet.
" With these views, at recent meetings of the
people, a committee was appointed to wait upon
the Governor and request the use of a part of
the arms in the State arsenal. This request
has been denied ; and the reason assigned by
his Excellency is, that he has doubts whether
by law he can loan out the arms of the State to
be used by the people of the State for their own
defence. Without commenting on the techni
calities which so much embarrass his Excellency,
or inquiring into the wisdom of that construction
of the law which infers, that because the State
arms ai'e to be kept Jit for use, therefore they
are not to be used, the committee would beg
leave respectfully to suggest to the people that,
inasmuch as they are to receive no aid from the

16 CANADA.
State, it is their duty at once to arm themselves,
and to rely upon themselves.
" While the govemor has thus declined fur
nishing any aid for the security of the frontier,
he has issued a proclamation enjoining upon the
citizens of this State the observance of a strict
neutrality between the hostile parties in Canada.
The propriety of our Governor's issuing a pro
clamation on an occasion like the present, merely
advisory, may well be questioned. It neither
creates any new obligations, nor adds force to
those already resting on our citizens. When it
is considered that our relations with foreign
powers are solely confided to the general govern
ment, and that if the people of this State should
boldly break the obligations of neutrality, the
governor of the State has no power to restrain
or to punish, it must be admitted, that a pro
clamation of neutrality issuing from our State
executive seems to be over-stepping the pro
prieties of the office, and should be exercised.

CANADA. 17
if at all, only in case of a general and glaring
violation of the laws of nations ; and even then
it may reasonably be questioned whether the
ca-dinary process of law would not be sufficient,
and whether gratuitous advice to the people on
the one hand, and gratuitous interference with
the exclusive functions of the general govern
ment on the other, would become pertinent by
being stamped with the official Seal of State.
We are not aware of any express authority in
our constitution or laws for the exercise of this
novel mode of addressing the people ; and it can
only be justified on the ground, that the chief
magistrate has something of fact or doctrine of
importance to communicate, of which the people
are supposed to be ignorant. In neither point
of view is there any thing striking in this other
wise extraordinary document.
" No facts are set forth before unknown to
the public, except that a representation has been
made to his Excellency that ' hostile forces had
been organized within this State,' of which

18 CANADA,
organization our citizens are profoundly ig
norant. " To the doctrine of this proclamation, — that
the declaration of martial law, by Lord Gosford,
changes the relations between the United States
and Canada, we cannot assent. Our relations
with Great Britain and her colonies rest upon
treaties, and the general law of nations, which,
it s believed, her Majesty's Governor in Chief
of Lower Canada can neither enlarge nor
restrict. " To assume that our citizens are ignorant of
their rights and obligations as members of a
neutral independent power, is to take for granted
that they have forgotten the repeated infractions
of those rights which have so often agitated our
country since the adoption of Federal Consti
tution, which led to the late war with Great
Britain, and which have given rise to claims of
idemnity that are still due from various powers
of Europe. Every page of the history of our
country pourtrays violations of her neutral rights

CANADA. 19
by the despotic and haughty powers of Europe,
among whom England has ever been foremost.
Your committee do not deem it necessary to
enlarge upon this subject."
After the report came the resolutions, a por
tion of which I subjoin : —
" Resolved — That the safety of the people is
the supreme law, and we recommend to our
citizens to arm themselves for the maintenance
of this law.
" Resolved — That the proclamation of martial
law in Canada, and placing, arms in the hands
of people unaccustomed to their use, hostile to
our institutions, and heated by intestine dis
sensions, have a direct tendency to disturb the
peace of our citizens, and deuiands the immediate
interference of the general government.
" Resolved — That our government ought to
take immediate measures to obtain redress for
the injuries and insults perpetrated on our
citizens by the people of Canada.
" Resolved — That as friends of human liberty

20 CANADA.
and human rights, we cannot restrain the ex
pression of our sympathy, when we behold an
oppressed and heroic people unfurl the bariner
of freedom. " Resolved — That we hope that time will soon
come when the bayonet shall fail to sustain the
last relic of royalty which now lingers on the
western continent.
" Resolved — That we concur in the opinions
which have been fully and freely expressed in
the British parliament by eminent English
statesmen ; that ' in the ordinary course of
things, Canada must soon be separated from the
mother country.'
" Resolved — That it is the duty of every
independent American to aid in every possible
manner, consistent with our laws, the exertions
of the patriots in Lower Canada, against the
tyranny, oppression, and misrule of a despotic
government."

21

CHAPTER II.
The next question to be considered is, whe
ther, independent of their being important to us
as an out-post to defend our transatlantic pos
sessions, the Canadas are likely to be useful to
us, as a colony, in a commercial point of view.
This requires much consideration.
It must be admitted that, up to the present,
we may consider the Canadas to have been a
heavy burden to this country. From what I am
now going to state, there are many, who agree
ing with me in most other points, will be likely
to dissent. That I cannot help ; I may be in
error, but, at all events, I shall not be in error
from a too hasty decision.
That it is wise and proper for a mother-country
to assist and support her colonies in their infancy

22 CANADA.
is undoubted. In so doing, the mother-country
taxes herself for the advantages to be hereafter
derived from the colony ; but it may occur that
the tax imposed upon the people of the mother-
country may be too onerous, at the same time
that no advantages at all commensurate are
derived from the colony. When such is the
case, the tax is not fair ; and the colony for
whose benefit that tax has been imposed, is
looked upon with iU-will. This is the precise
situation of the Canadas, and this is the cause
why there is so strong an outcry against our
retaining possession of these provinces.
The bonus of forty-five shillings on a load
of timber, which is given to the Canadas by
our present duties, is much too great ; and
has pressed much too heavily on the people of the
mother-country. It has, in fact, created a mono
poly ; and when it is considered how important
and necessary an article timberis in this country,
— how this enormous bonus on Canadian timber
affects the shipping, house-building, and agricul-

CANADA, 23
tural interests — it is no wonder that people wish
to get rid of the Canadas and the tax at one and
the same time. It is also injurious to us in our
commercial relations with the northern countries,
who refuse our manufactures because we have
laid so heavy a duty upon their produce. This
tax for the benefit of theCanadian produce was
put on during the war, without any inten
tion that it should remain permanent : and I
think I shall be able satisfactorily to establish,
that, not only is it unjust towards our own
people, but that, instead of benefiting, it will be,
now that the Canadas are fast increasing in
population, an injury to the Canadas themselves.
Up to the present period, timber has been the
only article of export from Canada : we certainly
have had the advantage of a large carrying trade,
and the employment of many thousand tons of
shipping ; but, with this exception, the timber
trade has been injurious, not only to the mother-
country, but to the colony itself, as it has pre
vented her real prosperity, which must ever

24 CANADA,
depend upon the culture of the land and tbe
increase of population. The first point to which
the attention of a colony should be directed, is
its own support, the competence and supply of
all the necessaries of life to its inhabitants ; it
is not until after this object has been obtained,
that it must direct its attention to the gain which
may accrue from any surplus produce. In what
way has the timber trade benefited the Canadas .''
Has it thrown any wealth into the provinces.'' most
certainly not ; the timber has been cut down, either
by those Canadians who would have been much
better employed in tilling the land, for every
acre cleared is real wealth ; or by Americans
who have come over to cut down the timber and
have returned to their own country to spend the
money. That the profits of the timber trade have
been great is certain ; but have these profits re
mained in the Canadas ? — have the sums realized
been expended there.'— no; they have been
realized in, or brought over to England, shared
among a few persons of influence who have, to a

CANADA. 25
certain degree, obtained a monopoly by the
bonus granted, but the Canadas have benefited
little or none, and the mother-country has re
ceived serious injury. That the parties connected
with the Canada timber trade will deny this,
and endeavour to ridicule my arguments, I am
aware ; and that they are an influential party I
well know ; but I trust, before I have concluded,
to prove to every disinterested person, that I am
correct in my view of the case, and that the
prosperity of the Canadas is a very different
question from the prosperity of the Canadian
timber merchants, or even the proprietors on the
Ottawa. When the protecting duty was first imposed,
there was no idea of its being a permanent duty :
it was intended as an encouragement for ships
to go to Canada for timber, when it could not
be got in the Baltic. It was, in fact, a war
measure, which should have been removed upon
the return to peace. The reason why it was not,
is, the plea brought forward, that the taking
VOL. III. c

26 CANADA.
off the protecting duty would be a serious loss to
the emigrant settler, who would have no means
of disposing of his timber after he had felled it,
and that the emigrant looked to his timber as his
first profits ; moreover, that it gave employ
ment to the emigrants in the long winters. That
those who have never been in the country were
led away by this assertion I can easily imagine,
but I must say that a more barefaced falsehood
were never uttered. There are varieties of emi
grants, and those with capital speculate in timber
as well as other articles ; but let us examine into
the proceedings of the emigrant settler, that is,
the man who purchases an allotment and com
mences as a farmer — for this is the party to whom
the supposed philanthropy was to extend. He
builds his cottage and clears two or three acres,
that is, he fells the trees ; as soon as he has done
this, if the weather permit, he burns them where
they lie, the branches and smaller limbs being
collected round the trunks as fuel to consume
them. This he is compelled to do, for the land

CANADA. 27
having been so long smothered by the want of
air and sunshine, arising from the denseness of
the forest, has a degree of acidity in it, which
the alkali of the' wood ashes are required to cor
rect, previous to his obtaining a crop. I do not
believe that a settler ever sold a tree when he
was clearing, although, if water-carriage was con
venient, he may afterwards, when he was in com
petent circumstances, have done so. Having
raised his crop from the first year's clearing, what
is his employment during the winter, — cutting
down timber on the Ottawa for the English mar
ket ? no ; cutting down timber on his own pro
perty as fast as he can, so as to have it ready for
burning in the early spring, and having a crop off
this, his second clearing. And so he continues,
with fuU employment on his own farm, until he
has cleared sufficient for the growing of his corn
and the pasture for his cattle. When he has be
come independent and comfortable, and has a
few thousand dollars to spare, then he will erect a
c2

28 CANADA.
¦saw-mill, and work up his own trees into lumber
for sale, but by that time he must be considered
as a rich man for a settler. The timber trade,
therefore, is hurtful to the Canadas, in so much
as it prevents them from clearing land and be
coming independent people, who by other means
would become so. The timber which is cut
down for exportation, is chiefly from the forests
on or near the Ottawa rivers, and the emigrant
settler has neither interest or concern in it.
It may be argued that, as settlers do, as soon
as they are in better circumstances, erect saw
mills, and work up their trees into lumber, that
it would be unfair to deprive them of that ad-
•vantage. I will grant that ; but the fact is,
that you will not do so ; for of the quantity
of timber and lumber exported from the Cana
das, it is only one-half which is sent to the Bri
tish market, the other half is divided between
the West-Indies, the United States, and their
wn consumption ; and the demand of theUnited

CANADA. 29
States will so rapidly increase, that, in a few
years, the Canadians will care little for sending
their timber to England, even if the present duty
were kept on. I consider that this bounty upon
cutting timber is very injurious to the American
provinces, as it distracts their attention from the
real source of wealth, which must consist in
clearing the country ; for, to show how great
a difference this makes to them, it must be ob
served, that a farm which was only worth two
doUars an acre when the settler first came to it,
wiU, as soon as others have cleared around him,
rise to twenty or thirty dollars per acre. Every
man, therefore, who settles and clears land, not
only benefits himself, but increases the value of
the property of all those around him ; while the
feller of timber on the Ottawa only puts a few
dollars into his own pocket, and does no good
to the province, as the timber-dealers in Eng
land reap all the harvest.
It would appear very strange that the ship-

30 CANADA.
owners should have joined the Canadian timber-
merchants in persuading the government to con
tinue these duties, were it not from the fact, that
the ship-owners appear, invariably, to oppose
any measure advantageous to their own interests.
That the carrying trade to the Canadas is of
importance is certain ; but of how much more
importance to the ship-owner is the reduction of
expense in building his ship, which must ensue
if the timber duties were reduced. The ship
owner complains that he cannot sail his ship at
as low a rate as foreigners ; that he must be
protected, or that he cannot compete with them
in any way ; and yet he opposes the very mea
sure which would materially assist him in so
doing. But the fact is, that, as I shall eventu
ally show, the carrying trade with Canada would
not be lost, though the cargo would not be the
same ; and there is every reason to suppose that
the employment of the shipping would very
soon amount to the same tonnage as at present.

CANADA. 31
The next consideration is, to what should the
duty be reduced, so as not to affect our revenue .''
This is a question easily answered.
In the Report on Timber Duties, Appendix
No. 10, we have, in round numbers, for the year
1833 :—
Timber exported from
Canada and American
provinces, calculated Loads. Duty paid.
in loads  719,000 ... £300,000-
Timber from the north
of Europe, in ditto., , 444,000... 985,000

1,163,000 ... 1,285,000

Now it is certain that, wherever the timber
may come from, the same quantity will be re
quired ; we have, therefore, to fix a duty upon
timber coming from all parts of the world, by
which the revenue wiU not suffer. A duty of
25s. per load will give, upon the whole importa
tion, a revenue of <£"] ,453,000, not only an in-

32 CANADA.
crease of revenue upon the timber at present im
ported ; but there is every reason to suppose
that it would occasion a much greater consump
tion of timber, and of course a great increase of
revenue. I do not consider that it would be
advisable to make this reduction immediately.
There is a large tonnage employed in the Canada
trade, which might as well wear out in it ; and it
would be but fair to allow those who have em
barked their capital in the trade, to have time
to withdraw it. As the Canadas are not yet
prepared to send other produce to the market,
we can, with great propriety, confer this boon
upon the present timber trade. The reduction
of the duty should be gradual, and extended
over ten years, at which period the final reduc
tion to 25s. per load should take place; by which
time, if Canada be cherished, she will have other
produce for the market.
The more I consider the question, the more
I am convinced that this alteration would be a
benefit to all parties. We then should be able

CANADA. 33
to build ships at a moderate price ; we should
have a fall in house-rent ; and, indeed, it would
be of advantage to every class in this country ;
and, however interested people may argue^
the removal of this protecting duty would be
the greatest boon and kindness which we could-
confer on our transatlantic possessions.
Let us now inquire what are likely to be the
future prospects and produce of the Canadas as
the population increases, and the resources of the
country wUl be developed.
Lower Canada is a sterile country ; not that
the land is in itself bad, but from the severity
and length of the winters. The climate of Lower
Canada is precisely the same as that of Russia^
and so might be its produce. The winters are
tedious, but not unhealthy, as they are dry,.
The summers, like all the summers in the north
ern regions, although short, are excessively
hot. It is owing to this excessive heat of the
summer that the maize, or Indian com, which
will not ripen in this country, can be grown ia
c 3

34 CANADA,
Lower Canada, and it is the principal corn which
is riased. The French Canadians who inhabit
Lower Canada are but indifferent and careless
farmers, yet stiU they contrive to live in appa
rent comfort : but the question is not whether
the inhabitants of Lower Canada can support
themselves, but whether they are likely to be
able to produce anything which might become
an article of export to England. I should say
yes : they may produce tar and hem'p, two very
important articles, and for which we are almost
wholly dependent upon Russia. Tar they can
most assuredly produce ; and, with the same
climate as Russia, why not hemp ? Hemp will
grow in any climate, and almost in any soU,
except very stiff clay, and I consider the soU of
Lower Canada admirably adapted to it. Up to
the present time the French Canadians have
merely vegetated, but as the country fills up,
and they gradually amalgamate with the other
settlers, there is no doubt that they will rapidly
improve.

CANADA. 35
Upper Canada has been, and is still, but little
known. At the close of the war, there was not
a population of 40,000 upon the whole province :
even now there is but 400,000 upon a territory
capable of receiving and supporting many
miUions. It is, without exception, the most
favoured spot in North America, having all the
fertility of the Southern and Western States,
without being subject to the many and fatal dis«
eases which are a drawback upon the latter.
Although so far north, its climate is peculiarly
mild, from its being so wholly surrounded with
water, which has the effect of softening down
both the cold of the winter and the heat of the
summer. It abounds with the most splendid
timber ; is well watered ; the land is of the
richest quality ; the produce is very great, and
the crops are almost certain. I particularly
notice this as I consider Upper Canada to be
the finest corn coimtry in the world.
At present the resources of the Canadas are
unknown ; the country has not been explored ; it

36 CANADA.
is without capital, and I may add without credit,
but its prospects are very favourable. The tim
ber trade to England will in a few years, even
allowing the present bonus to be continued,
be of little advantage to Upper Canada ; they
will find a much better market as the Western
States fill up, as then there will be a great de
mand for lumber, which will be obtained cheaper
from Canada than from any portion of the
United States. Even now lumber is sent over
from Upper Canada to those portions of theUnited
States bordering on the lakes. I have pointed
out the want of timber in the Westem States,
that is, of timber fit for building ; they have
some in the State of Wisconsin, which will soon
be absorbed, and then the Canada timber and
lumber will be in demand, and I have no doubt
that there will be a very extensive exportation
of it. The next article of produce to which the Ca
nadians should direct their attention is the fish
eries on the lake, which may be carried on to

CANADA, 37
any extent and with great profit. The trout
and white fish, both very superior to the New
foundland cod, are to be taken with the greatest
ease, and in vast quantities. I have mentioned
that the Americans have already commenced
this fishery, and the demand is rapidly increas
ing. As the West fills up, the supply would
hardly keep pace with the demand ; besides
that it would also be an article of exportation
to this country.
There are millions and millions of acres to
the north and about Lake Superior, fit for little
else than the increase of the animals whose furs
we obtain, and which will probably never be
brought into cultivation ; yet these lands are
rich in one point, which is, that the maple-tree
grows there, and any quantity of sugar may be
collected from it, as soon as the population is
thick enough to spare hands for its collection.
A maple-tree, carefully tapped, wiU yield for
forty years, and give six or seven pounds of
sugar, fully equal to the best East-India pro-

38 CANADA.
duce, and refining well. A few tons are col
lected at present, but it may become a large
article of export.
The United States appear to be rich in most
metals, but particularly in lead and iron ;* the
* The following description of the iron mines at
Marmora are worthy the attention of the reader. It is
from the engineer who was sent to survey them.
" To Isaac Fraser, Esq.
" The water power at Marmora, and its sufficiency for
all hydraulic purposes, may be better imagined than ex
plained to you by me, from the fact, that the falls occur
upon the Crow River, at the foot of untold lakes faUing
into Crow Lake, the deepest inland lake in the province,
and just below the junction of the Beaver River, which
latter has its source in the Ottawa or Grand River, or
the waters flowing parallel therewith, and by the outlet
at the Marmora Falls : these head waters, on the con
fluence with the waters of the Otonabee, and Rice Lake
in Crow Bay, six miles below the works, form the great
River Trent, second in importance and magnitude only
to the St. Lawrence. It is sufficient for me to add, that
I deem the water power at the works abundantly equal
to all the purposes of machinery and manufacture, which
can for centuries be established there.
" Immediately adjoining the works there is an ore
bed, from the partial development of which, and from the
opinions I have received of its superior quality, it would
appear to be of the purest kind of iron ore, except na-

CANADA. 39
metal which they are most deficient in is copper.
It is said that the copper mines in New Jersey
tive iron, in the same veins with which is an admixture
of red paint and yellow ochre, and in separate veins and
beds at this locality, those paints occur in some quanti
ties, several barrels of which, especially the red paint,
Mr. Hayes disposed of at 25^. per barrel, at the works,
and it seems probable they would become profitable articles
of commerce. Here also there is a bed of purely white
marble, not seemingly stratified, but in large blocks ;
and a quarry of superior stone for lithographic purposes,
the quality of which has been tested and reported fa
vourably upon. This ore bed would be from its situa
tion within any wall constructed for the custodj'^ of the
convicts, but from the great jumble of mineral sub
stances, which the careless opening of those veins has
occasioned, it is not possible to hazard an opinion as to
the probable extent of minerals here, but from, if I may
judge by appearances and from geological analogy, the
few acres surrounding, it is probable they are sufficiently
extensive to he an object of consideration — several hun
dred tons of ore have already been taken out for the
furnaces. There is at this place a well-built bridge and
a wharf at which the ore brought from the lake ore beds
is landed, and from thence carted or wheeled up to the
ore bank.
" Af a distance of four miles by water, that is at the
Croiv Lake, in the township of Belmont, Neiocastle Dis
trict, the principal ore led occurs. I may confine my
observations respecting this ore bed to the qualities and

40 CANADA.
are good ; those in the West have not yet proved
to be worth working. Canada, as I have before
varieties of the ores to be found there, and of the extent
of the deposit give you an idea, by fancying my feelings
when I first saw the mountain. My surprise was great,
and m,y first conclusion was, that it would he more than
sufficient to supply the world with iron for ever. The
ore here is in great variety of magnetic ore, easily
quarried ; and, in fact, it can be quarried, loaded, and
transported to the works, roasted on the ore bank, broken
up into particles, and put upon the furnace, at an expense
not exceeding 2s. 6d, per ton ; as I observed it is strong
ly magnetic, and although mixed considerably with sul
phur, it is easily freed from that deleterious mineral by
exposure to the atmosphere, and to the action of air and
frost, and by this species of evaporation, a new and valu
able commodity could be procured iu great quantities,
namel)', the copperas of commerce.
" With a boat of 50 tons burthen — and there is depth
of water enough for a 74 gun ship from the wharf at the
works to this mountain of ore — navigated by four men,
150 tons of ore could be brought down in two days — so
readily is it quarried, and so handily put on board. In
termediate to this bed and the works, several other de-
posites of iron are discovered— one of a superior quality,
surpassing in magnetic power any other ore yet dis
covered, possessing what mineralogists call polarity ; —
and near to this, meadow and bog ore, not a mile dis
tant from the works, is to be found in great quantitie.s.
The works are to the north-north-east and eastward,

CANADA, 41
said, is as yet unexplored, but I have every reason
to believe that it will be found rich in minerals,
especially copper. I argue, first, from its analogy
with Russia, which abounds in that metal ;
and secondly, because there is at this time, on
the shores of Lake Superior, a mass of native
copper weighing many tons, a specimen of which
I have had in my hand. We must not for
get to reckon, among the other products and
expected resources of Canada, the furs ob
tained by the Hudson Bay Company. Of
course, if the Canadas are wrested from us, we
shall have to depend upon the Americans for
our supply of this necessary article. The value
in Canada of the furs exported to this country,
by the company, amounts, as 1 have observed in
surrounded by beds of ore, of which five have been
tried and brought into use — but as they are inland, and
consequently more expensively procured, they merit but
this passing observation, that in quantity and quality
they are valuable. " For the present I am. Sir,
" Your obedient servant,
"  Engineer."

42 CANADA.
my Diary, to about a million and a half of
dollars. I now come to what I consider will be the
most important export from the Canadas. I
have stated it to be my opinion that Upper
Canada will be the first corn country in the
world, and in a very few years we may expect
that she will export largely into this country ;
already having had a surplus which has been
sold to the Americans. It must be recollected
that America, who used to supply the West-In
dies and other parts of the world with her flour,
has, for these last few years, in her mania for
speculating, neglected her crops, and it is only
during these last two years that she has re
directed her attention to the tillage of her land.
She wiU now no longer require assistance from
Upper Canada, and the yearly increasing corn-
produce of that province must find a market
^elsewhere. After supplying the wants of Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick, this surplus will
find its way into this country. As the popula-

CANADA. 43
tion of Upper Canada increases, so will of course
her growth of wheat be greater, and in a very
few years, we have reason to expect that there
will be not only a constant, but even a more than
requisite, exportation of corn to this country.
Now what will be the effect ? Corn from Ca
nada is admitted at a fixed duty of 5s. per quar
ter, therefore as soon as the supply from thence
is sufficient, the corn laws will be virtually re
pealed, that is to say, they wUl be exchanged
for a permanent duty of 5s. per quarter.
I think that the remarks I have made will in
cline the reader to agree with me, that the re
duction of the duties on timber will be a real
boon to all parties : to the Canadians, because
at the same time that the supplies of lumber to
the West-Indies and elsewhere will give a cer
tain profit, they will no longer have the true in
terests of the colony sacrificed for the benefit of
parties at home ; — to the mother country, because
it will relieve the expenses of the builder, lessen

44 CANADA.
house-rent and agricultural expenses, and at
the same time increase the revenue ; — to the
ship-owner, as it will enable him to build much
cheaper, and to compete more successfully with
foreign vessels, with the prospect also of the
carrying trade soon reviving, and the freight of
the corn proving an indemnification to him for
the loss of that on the timber. That a few in
terested individuals would complain is un
doubted, but it is high time that a monopoly so
injurious in every point, should be removed; and
the profits of a few speculators are not to be for
a moment considered, when opposed both to the
interests of the colony and of the nation.
I may as well here remark that it would only
be an act of justice to the provinces, and no less
so to ourselves, to take off the prohibitions at
present in force against the importation of goods
from France and other countries. The boon
itself would be small, but stiU it would be a
stimulus to enterprize, and the time has gone by

CANADA. 45
for England to impose such restrictions on her
colonies. I sav that we should lose nothinff,
because all these articles are imported by the
Americans ; and if the Canadians wish to pro
cure them, they can obtain them immediately at
Buffalo, and other American towns bordering on
the lakes. At present, therefore, aU the profits
arising from these importations go into the
pockets of the Americans, who are the only
parties benefited by our restrictive laws. We
should therefore remove them.
I shall now support the arguments in this
chapter, touching the relative value of the corn
and the timber trade to the Canadas, by some
extracts from the evidence given in the Report
of the Committee on the Timber Duties.
Q. " Have you ever formed an opinion of
what rate per quarter wheat could be exported to
this country, so as to yield a profit to the
exporter ? — A. I cannot call it to mind accu
rately, but I think the estimate I once made
was between 40s. and 50s.

46 CANADA.
Q. "Would it not follow that, unless the
price of wheat in this country were to rise to
40s. or 505. per quarter, the population that
your former answer would transfer from the
timber trade to the agricultural would not be
able advantageously to employ themselves ? —
A. No ; I do not think it follows necessarily. If
all our population were devoted to agriculture,
our settlements would be more dense, and their
roads more perfect ; in fact, all the social offices
more perfectly fulfilled ; ¦ which would enable
them to bring their wheat to market at a more
moderate price, and thus they might obtain a
larger profit even with a lower price. We
should bear in mind, in relation to their agri
cultural produce, that the farmer of course first
feeds his own family, and that price only affects
him so far as it relates to his surplus produce,
and that price rather affects his luxuries than
his means of subsistence. I am not aware that
the present prices would prevent a farmer ob-

CANADA, 47
taining that return which would enable him to
purchase at least all his necessaries.
Q. " What do you suppose is the average
expense of the conveyance of wheat from the
remote parts of Canada to Montreal ? — A. I be
lieve the cost of bringing wheat from Niagara
to Montreal was about ISd. colonial currency,
but I am not certain ; it is not now lower. I
once made a table showing the cost of taking
produce of all kinds from three points on Lake
Ontario and on Lake Erie, and sending up
articles to the same places,
Q. "What is the freight from Quebec to
England ? — A. The ordinary rate has been
from 8s. to 8s. 6d. a quarter for wheat.
Q. " Do you know the price of wheat in this
country ? — A, I believe the last average was 40s.
Q. " If at 40s. you would probably allow
10s. a quarter, by your present statement, as a
fair deduction for the expenses of bringing it
into this market ?—A. I should think so.

48 CANADA.
Q. " Do you think the price of 30s. would
pay the agricultural producer in Canada for
the production of wheat ; would afford a return
for the investment of capital in the production
of wheat in Canada ? — A. I should be loth to
speak to a point on which I have not sufficient
knowledge. Q. " Is it not indispensable to form an opi
nion upon that point to justify the opinion you
have already given ? — A. I think not. I have
that feeling, that the consequence of their not
having the timber trade would be, that they
would produce other articles, and that their condi
tion would not be deteriorated. I am led to that
conclusion by seeing the present condition of the
State of New York, which once depended on the
timber trade ; I look also to Vermont ; and when
every man tells me that he laments and has
lamented that he ever meddled with the timber
trade, I think that I am justified in my opinion,
for no one will pretend to state that the land of
Vermont, or even of New York, equals that of

CANADA. 49
-Canada. While speaking of the soil df Canada,
I would observe that Jacobs has estimated the
average return for wheat on the Continent at
four to one, of Great Britain seven to one, and
Gourlay has estimated the return of Upper
'Canada at twenty to one. Many state that
Upper Canada is icnrivalled in comparison with
any other piece of land of equal extent.
Q. " Are you aware of the extent of expor
tation of agricultural produce from Canada ?
— A. I am ; I can state it from memory. The
largest quantity of wheat exported in any year
was in 1831, and I think amounted to 1,300,000
bushels. Q< " Can you make the same statement with
reference to corn and provisions as to other arti
cles ? — A. Canada exports a great deal of corn.
Q. "Which Canada.!'—^. Both Upper and
Lower Canada.
Q. " Does Lower Canada grow corn enough
for her own consumption ? — A. I should think
Lower Canada did, and more.
VOL. III. D

60 CANADA,
Q. " Does Upper Canada ? — A. Upper Ca
nada a great deal more.
Q. " Have you the amount of the exports ? —
A. I have the exports of 1833 ; the two Canadas
exported about 650,000 bushels of wheat.
Q. "How much flour.?— J. About 91,000
barrels. Q. " Have you any account of the imports of
flour from the United States into Lower Canada.?
— A. I have not with me ; but I can give it very
nearly. Q. " Do those exports of which you have
spoken just now comprehend the United States'
flour ? — A. No, they are exclusive of Colonial
production. Q. "Is not Lower Canada, as well as Upper
Canada, in the habit of supplying herself, to a
certain degree, with American flour and wheat,
and exporting her own produce, on account of the
state of the corn laws last year .? — A. Yes, it is
done to a certain extent. I have some indication
as to the quantity which comes from the United

CANADA. 51
States into Upper and Lower Canada being
small. In the returns of the traffic last year
through the Welland Canal, about 265,000
bushels of wheat passed through, of which
18,000 British and 22,000 American only went
to Montreal. AU the rest went to Oswego, for
the New York market : but the destination in
future wUl probably depend upon whether the
internal communication is improved in those
colonies, and on the state of the market in New
York and in the Canadas.
Q. " If there is sufficient capital, is there any
reason to suppose it would not be beneficial to
engage in both ? — A. I do not think it is a ques
tion concerning the abundance of capital, but the
good to be derived from the preservation of the
Canada timber trade by enormous protecting
duties. I am confident that the timber trade
is inimical to the best interests of tke Canadas ;
it would be possible to make the timber trade
more beneficial than any other pursuit in the
country, and the way to render it so would be
to give immense protecting duties to the timber
d2

52 CANADA.
trade of Canada, allowing all other articles of
produce to, be open to general competition ; but,
by such a course, England would not be bene
fiting Canada.
Q. " Can you state the average prices of wheat
at Quebec the last four or five years? — A. I
think 5s. or 6s. Canadian currency ; the latter rate
is equal to 5s. sterling, which is 40s. a quarter ;
but I do not suppose an average of several
years would be over 4s. 2d., that would be
33s. 4cZ. There are peculiar circumstances that
attended the last three or four years.
Q. " Has it been higher the last three or four
years than the three or four years previously ? —
A. Considerably higher than the ten years pre
viously. Q. " Do you think 30s. a quarter would have
been the average of the ten years preceding ? —
A. I should think so, but I cannot now speak
positively. Q. " Are the committee to understand it to be
your opinion, that if the timber establishments
were broken up and no more timber exported

CANADA. 53
from Canada, there would be no loss to that
country ? — A. There might be an immediate loss,
and a very great subsequent gain, I think
there would be an immediate loss attending on
the miUs, possibly ^g 1.50,000 to =£'200,000.
0,. " Has it not been the fact that there has
been a constant and gradual increase of tonnage
into Quebec for the last fifteen years ? — A. Yes.
Q. " Presuming that those establishments were
to be broken up, and no more timber exported,
do you think that gradual increase would still con
tinue ? — A. No ; the first consequence, I think,
very possibly would be a very material decrease.
Q. " Subsequently the same tonnage would be
required for the carriage of corn as at present.? —
A. Some years hence, for corn and other articles.

54

CHAPTER III.
To one who has a general knowledge of the
various English colonies, to which emigration
is constantly taking place, it appears very
strange that people should emigrate to such
countries as New South Wales, Van Dieman's
Land, and New Zealand, when Upper Canada
is comparatively so near to them, and affording
every advantage which a settler could wish.
Of course the persuasion of interested parties,
and their own ignorance, prevent them from
ascertaining the truth. Indeed, the reports upon
Upper Canada are occasionaUy as highly coloured
as those relative to the other colonies, and
nothing but an examination of the country, I may
say a certain period of residence in it, can ena
ble you to ascertain the real merits of the case.

CANADA. 55
I have neither land nor interest in Upper Canada,
and, therefore, my evidence on the question may
be considered as impartial ; and I do not hesi
tate to assert that Upper Canada promises more
advantages to the settler than any other English
colony, or any portion whatever of the United
States. I shall now make a few remarks upon emigra
tion to that province, and point out what the set
tler wiU have to expect. I have read many works
upon the subject ; they are very inaccurate, and
hold out to the emigrant brilliant prospects,
which are seldom or never realized. The best
work, independently of its merits as a novel,
is ' Laurie Todd,' by Mr. Gait. And, first,
I address myself to the poor man who goes
out with only twenty or thirty pounds in his
pocket. If he credit the works written to induce
people to emigrate, all that he has to do is to
build his log-hut, clear his land, and in three
years be an independent man.

66 CANADA.
It is true that he can purchase fifty acres of
land for one hundred dollars, or twenty-five
pounds ; that he has only to pay one-tenth
part of the sum down, which is two pounds ten
shillings sterling. It is true that he will col
lect a Bee, as it is termed, or a gathering of
neighbours to run up the frame of his house ;
but, nevertheless, possessing his fifty acres of
land and his log-house, he will in all proba
bility be starved out the very first year, especi
ally if he has a family..
To a poor man, a family is eventually of
immense value. As soon as he has fairly
settled, the more children he has the faster
he will become rich; but on his first arrival,
they will, if not able to work for themselves, be
a heavy burthen. If, however, they can do any
thing, so as to pay for their board and lodging,
he will not be at any expense for them, as there
is employment for every body, even for children.
The only article I should recommend him to
take out from England is a good supply of

CANADA. 57
coarse clothing for his family ; if he would
take out a venture, let it be second-hand clothes,
and he will double his money if he sells them by
auction, for clothes are the most expensive article
in Canada. I once saw some cast-off clothes
sold by an acquaintance of mine in Upper Ca
nada ; a Jew in England would not have given
five pounds for the lot, yet, sold at auction,
they cleared twenty-five pounds, all expenses
paid. He cannot, therefore, take out too much
clothing, but the coarser and more common it is
the better. Let him supply himself from the old
clothes shops, or the cheap stores. New clothes
will soon become old when he works hard.
Having made this provision, let him buy nothing
else ; but change his money into sovereigns and
keep it in his pocket.
As soon as he arrives at Quebec, he must lose
no time in taking the steam-boat up the St. Law
rence, and landing near to where he has decided
upon locating. If he has made no decision, at all
D 3

58 CANADA.
events let him leave the city immediately, and get
into the country, for there he will get work and
spend less money. Instead of thinking of making
a purchase of land, let him give up all thoughts
of it for a year or two; but hire himself out,
and his wife and children also, if he can. If he is
a good man, he will receive four pounds a month,
or forty-eight pounds a year, with his board and
lodging. The major part of this he will be
able to lay by. If his wife must stay at
home to take care of the children, still let her
work ; work is always to be found, and she may
not only support herself and children, but
assist his fund. By the time that he has been
eighteen months or two years in the country,
he will have his eyes open, know the value
of every thing, and wUl not be imposed upon
as he would have been had he taken a farm
immediately upon his arrival. He wiU have
laid by a sum sufficient for him to begin with,
and he wiU have become acquainted with the

CANADA. 69
mode of farming in the country, which is very
different from what he has been used to in the
old. He may then go on and prosper.
The next description of emigrant settler to
which 1 shall address myself is he who comes
out with a small capital, say from two hundred
to five hundred pounds ; a sum sufficient to ena
ble him to commence farming at once, but not
sufficient to allow him to purchase or stock a farm
which has a portion of the land already cleared.
The government lands fetch at auction about ten
shillings an acre, and they are paid for by instal
ments, one-tenth down, and one-tenth every year,
with interest, until the whole be paid ; of course,
he may pay it all at once, if he pleases, and save
the interest. He must not purchase morfe than
four hundred acres. He can always procure
more if he is successful. His first instalment
to govemment for the purchase of four hundred
acres will be eighty dollars.
His next object is to have a certain portion

60 CANADA.
of his land cleared for him. The price varies-
according to tlie size and quantity of the por
tion ; but you may say, at the highest, it will
cost about sixteen dollars an acre. Let him
clear ten acres, and then build his house and
barns. I will make two estimates, between whick
he may decide according to his means.
Estimate 1. Dollars^
Instalment to Government  SO
8hingle-house  400
Furniture  100
Barns and Sheds  400
'J'en acres clearing  160
Oxen  80
Cow  20
Figs and Poultry  20
Plough, Harrow, &c  20-
Seed  50
Horse and Waggon  100
About .£300  1,430
To this (if you have no family able to
work) for a man and his wife  300
Expenses of living the first year  200
£iQO  1,930

CAInADA, 61
Estimate 2. Dollars.
Instalment to Government  80
-Log-house and Furniture  100
Barn  60
Clearing  160
Oxen  80
Cow  20
Pigs and Poultry  20
Plough, Harrow, &c  20
Seed  50
Horse and ^^'aggon  ] 00
^150  690
But choosing between these two estimates,
according to his means, that is, by reserving,
if possible, one hundred pounds for contingen
cies, he has every chance of doing well. He
must bear in mind, that although every year his
means will increase, he must not cripple himself
by an outlay of all his money at first starting.
After the first year, he will be able to support
himself and family from the farm. I have put
every thing at the outside expense, that he may
not be deceived ; but he must not expend all his
capital at once ; his horse or oxen may die —

62 CANADA.
his crops may partially fail — he may have
severe illness — all these contingencies must be
provided against.
But the settler who goes out under the most
favourable circumstances, is the one who has
one thousand pounds or more, and who can,
therefore, purchase a farm of from two hundred
to four hundred acres, with a portion cleared, and
a house and offices ready built. These are always
to be had, for there are people in the Canadas,
as in America, who have pleasure in selling their
cleared land, and going again into the bush.
These farms are often to be purchased at the rate
of from five to ten dollars per acre for the whole,
cleared and uncleared. In this case, aU the diffi
culties have been smoothed away for him, and all
that he has to do is, to be industrious and sober.
When I was at London, on the river Thames,
(in Upper Canada I mean), I might have pur
chased a farm, lying on the banks of that
river, of four hundred acres, seventy of them
cleared, and the rest covered with the finest oak

CANADA. 63
timber, with a fine water-power, and a saw-mill
in full work, a good house, barn, and out
buildings and kitchen garden, for six hundred
pounds. In ten years this property will be worth
more than six thousand pounds ; and in twenty
more, if the country improves as fast as it does
now, at least fifteen thousand pounds.
In looking out for a property in Canada, al
ways try to obtain a water-power, or the means
of erecting one, by damming up any swift stream;
its value wiU, in a few years, be very great ;
and never consider a few dollars an acre more,
if you have transport by water, or are close
to a good market. You must look forward to
what the country will be, not to what it is at
present. Half-pay officers settle in Upper Canada with
great advantages, arising from the circumstance,
that their annual pay is always a resource to
fall back upon. A very small capital is sufficient
in this case ; and, if prudent, they gradually rise
to independence, if not to wealth. There are.

64 CANADA.
however, one or two cautions to be given to these
gentlemen. Never go into the bush if you can
help it : accustomed to society, you will find the
total loss of it too serious. If you have a wife
and large family, they may partially compen
sate for the loss, but even then it is better
to locate yourself near a small town. If you are
a single man and sit down in the bush, you are
lost. Hundreds have done so, and the result
has been, that they have resorted to intem
perance, and have died ruined men.
But the settlers most required in Upper Ca
nada, and those who would reap the most golden
harvest, are men of capital ; when I say capital,
I mean those who possess a sum of four or five
thousand pounds — a sum very inadequate to
support a person in England, who has been born
and bred as a gentleman ; but in Canada, with
such a sum, he can not only farm, but speculate
to great advantage. At present the Americans
go over there every year, and realize large sums
of money. Indeed, capital is so much required in

CA.\-ADA. 65
Upper Canada, and may be employed to such
advantage, that I wonder people, with what may
be considered as small capitals here, do not go
over. The only caution to give them is, not to
be in a hurry ; in the course of a year or two
they will understand what they are about, and
then they will soon become wealthy.
When I arrived at Toronto, I was called upon
by an old friend who had often shot with me in
Norfolk. His father had once set him up in busi
ness, but the house failed. He resolved to go out
to Canada, and his father gave him a thousand
pounds as a start, and allowed him two hundred
pounds a year afterwards. He had been in the
country seven years when we met again. I ac
cepted his invitation to dine and sleep at his
house, which was about seven miles from the
town. He sent handsome saddle horses over for
three of us. I found him located on a beautiful
farm of about four hundred acres, the major por
tion of it cleared ; his house was a very ele
gantly built cottage ornee ; every thing had the

66 CANADA,
appearance of a handsome English country re
sidence ; he had married a beautiful woman of
one of the first famiUes. We sat down to an
exceUent dinner, and, in every respect, the whble
set-out was equal to what you generaUy meet
with ill good society in England. He was reaUy
living in luxury. We returned the next day,
in a handsome carriage and as fine a pair of
horses as one could wish to see.
I could hardly credit that all this could have
been accumulated in seven years — yet such was
the case, and it was not a singular one; for
the whole road from his farm to Toronto was
lined with similar farms and handsome houses,
belonging togentlemen who had emigrated, form
ing, among themselves, a very extensive and
most delightful society.
Although they do not go a-head as fast as some
of the American cities, (for instance, as Buffalo,)
still Upper Canada has, within the last ten or fif
teen years, taken a surprising start, and will now,
if judiciously governed, increase in wealth almost

CANADA. 67
as fast as any of the American States, About
Toronto, most of the gentlemen have incomes of
from seven hundred to fifteenhundred pounds per
annum, and keep handsome equipages; but there
are many other towns which have lately risen up
very rapidly. Peterborough is an instance of this.
" Peterborough in 1825 contained but one mise
rable dwelling ; now, in 1838, may be seen nearly
four hundred houses, many of them large and
handsome, inhabited by about fifteen hundred
persons ; a very neat stone church, capable of
accommodating eight hundred or nine hundred
persons,* a Presbyterian church of stone, two
* The building of this Chureh was undertaken by the
inhabitants of Peterborough and its vicinity, belonging
to the Church of England. In 1835 it was commenced,
and, by great exertions, opened for Divine worship in
December 1836, though not altogether finished. Nine
hundred pounds was raised by voluntary contributions,
not one farthing having been given by any public body
to it. The gentlemen composing the building committee
are responsible for the remainder due, being five hun
dred pounds. An advertisement for subscriptions to
liquidate this debt has been for some weeks past inserted
in a London newspaper.

68 CANADA,
dissenting places of worship, and a Roman
Catholic church in progress. The town has in
or near it, two grist, and seven saw-miUs, five
distilleries, two breweries, two tanneries, eigh_
teen or twenty shops (called stores), carriage,
sleigh, waggon, chair, harness, and cabinet
makers, and most other useful tjrades. Stages
run all the year, bringing mails five times a week;
and steam-boats whilst the navigation is open ;
there is one good tavern (White's), and two in
ferior ones. Families may now find houses of
any sizes to suit them, at moderate rents. The
roads in this neighbourhood are being greatly
improved. The towns of Cobourg, Port Hope,
Colborne, Grafton, Brighton, River Trent, and
Beaumont in the Newcastle district, are all
equally prosperous, and, like Peterborough, are
surrounded by genteel families from the United
Kingdom ; in short, the advancement of this
district is almost incredible."
But there is one important subject relative to
emigration which must be considered : if it be,

CANADA. 69
as I trust my readers will be inclined to think
with me, a national question, it is highly expe
dient that it should be not only assisted, but con
trolled by government. At present the mor
tality is tremendous ; and I very much question
whether there are not more lives sacrificed in the
transport of the emigrants, than subsequently
fall a prey to disease in the western States,
bordering on the Mississippi. With those who
would emigrate to the United States, we have
nothing to do, neither do they so much require
our sympathy. The American packets are good
vessels, and they suffer little ; and when they
land at New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia,
the charity of the Americans is always ready for
their relief. But with the poor emigrants who
would settle in Canada, the case is very diffe
rent. It must be understood, that the Quebec
trade is chiefly composed of worn-out and un-sea-
worthy vessels, which cannot find employment
elsewhere; for a vessel which is in such a state that
a cargo of dry goods could not be entrusted to

70 CANADA.
her, is still sufficiently serviceable for the timber
trade — as, ' allowing her bottom to be out' with
a cargo of timber she of course cannot founder.
But if these vessels are sufficiently safe to bring
timber home, they are not sufficiently good ves
sels to receive three or four hundred emigrants on
board. Leaky, bad sailers, ill-found, the voyage
is often protracted, and the sufferings of the poor
people on board are dreadful. Fever and other
diseases break out among them, and they often
arrive at Quebec with sixty or seventy people who
are carried to the hospital, independently of those
who have died and been thrown overboard.
Sometimes their provisions do not last out the
voyage, and they are obliged to purchase of the
captain or others on board, (who have prepared
for the exigence,) and thus their little savings to
recommence life with, are all swallowed up to
support existence. I believe that what they suffer
is dreadful ; and if ever there was a case which
would call forth patriotism and sympathy, it is
the hardships of these poor people. Allowing

CANADA. 71
emigration not to be a national question, still it
is a question for national humanity, and all this
suffering might be alleviated at comparatively a
very trifling expense.
If two or three of our smaller line-of-battle
ships now lying at their moorings, were to be jury-
rigged, Avithout any guns on board, and manned
with a sloop's ship's company, they would
not decay faster by running between Quebec and
this country than if they remained in harbour.
One of these vessels would carry out 2,500 men,
women, and cluldren. Let the emigrants take
their provisions on board, and should their
provisions fail them, let there be a surplus for
their supply at the cost price. Under this arrange
ment, you would have that order, cleanliness,
and ventilation which would ensure them against
disease, and proper medical attendance if it
should be required; you would save thou
sands of lives, and the emigrant, as he left the
ship, would feel grateful for the benefit con
ferred. But the assistance of govemment must

72 CANADA.
not end here : the emigrant, on his arrival, is
adrift ; he knows not where to go ; he has no rest
ing place ; he is a perfect stranger to the country
and to every thing ; he exhausts his means before
he can find employment or settle : other arrange
ments are therefore necessarv, if the work of
charity is to be completed. Indeed, the want
of these arrangements is the cause of a very
large proportion of the Canadian emigrants
leaving our provinces and settling in the United
States, where they can immediately find employ
ment ; and Americans, agents of the land spe
culators, are continually on the look-out in
Canada, persuading the emigrants, by all sorts
of promises and inducements, to leave the pro
vinces and to take lands in the States, belonging
to their employers. Every emigrant lost to us
is a gain to America ; and upon the increase of
the English population depends the prosperity,
of the Canadas, and our best chance of retaining
them in our possession.
Both Upper and Lower Canada have one great

CANADA. 73
advantage over most of the other territories of
the United States, which is, that they are so
very healthy ; the winters" in both provinces are
dry, and, in Upper Canada, they are not severe ;
and the summers are cool, compared with those
of the United States. Indeed, in point of cli
mate, they cannot be surpassed ; and I rather
think, independently of its fine soil, which ena
bles it to grow every thing (for even tobacco
grows well in Upper Canada), that in mineral
richness it is not to be exceeded. It abounds
in water-power, and has several splendid rivers.
As soon as the roads are made (for that is the
present desideratum in the Upper Province), I
have no hesitation in asserting, that it will be, of
all others, the most favourable spot for emigration.
It is a man's own fault if, with common in
dustry, he does not, in a few years, secure compe
tence and the happiness arising from indepen
dence, when it is accompanied by that greatest
of all blessings — health.
VOL. III. E

74 CANADA.
There has been so strange and continued a
system of misrule on the part of the mother-
country with respect to these provinces, that I
am not surprised at any thing which takes place ;
but it is certain that the emigration to the Ca
nadas has been very much checked by the Go
vernment itself.
The price of land in the United States is
fixed at a dollar and a quarter per acre ; be it of
the best quality, full of minerals, or with any
other important advantages, the price is still the
same. The set-up price in Canada is two dol
lars per acre. If no more is offered it is sold at
that sum, but at no less. Now, whatever the
Government may imagine, I can assure them
that this difference in the price is considered
very important by those who emigrate, and that
thousands who would have settled in Canada,
have, in consequence, repaired to the United
States, much to our disadvantage ; and this ap
pears so contradictory, as the Government have

CANADA. 75
very unwisely parted with enormous tracts of
the best land, selling them to a Company at a
price which, with facilities for payment, reduces
the price paid per acre by this Company to, I
think, about one shilling and three-pence, and
for which the Company now charge the same
price as the Government ; thus giving a bonus
to speculators which they refuse to those who
wish to become bond Jide settlers. I never
could comprehend the grounds upon which they
were persuaded to so unwise an act as that.
The lands were sold to the Company before the
present Government were in power, but why the
price of the land stUl in possession of the Crown
should be raised higher than in the United
States I cannot imagine. Sound policy would
reduce it lower, for the increase of wealth in the
province must ever consist in the increase of its
population. There are in Upper Canada several villages of
free negroes, who have escaped from the United
States, and should it be considered at any time
E 2

76 CANADA.
advisable to remove any of the West-Indian
population, it would be very wise to give them
land on the Upper Canada frontiers. The
negroes thrive there uncommonly well, and
have acquired habits of industry ; and, as may
be supposed, are most inveterate . against the
Americans, as was proved in the late distur
bances, when they could hardly be controlled.
They imagine (and very truly) that if the Ame
ricans were to obtain possession of Canada, that
they would return to slavery, and it is certain
that they are not only brave, but would die ra
ther than be taken prisoners. This is a question
worth consideration, as out of an idle and use
less race in the West-Indies may be formed, at
very little expense, a most valuable frontier po
pulation to these provinces. I am happy to
perceive that, in the Report of Lord Durham, the
importance of these provinces to the mother-
country is fully acknowledged.
" These interests are indeed of great magni
tude ; and on the course which your Majesty

CANADA. 77
and your Parliament may adopt, with respect
to the North American colonies, will depend the
future destinies, not only of the million and a
half of your Majesty's subjects who at present
inhabit those provinces, but of that vast popu
lation which those ample and fertile territories
are fit and destined hereafter to support. No
portion of the American continent possesses
greater natural resources for the maintenance of
large and flourishing communities. An almost
boundless range of the richest soil still remains
unsettled, and may be rendered available for the
purposes of agriculture. The wealth of inex
haustible forests of the best timber in America,
and of extensive regions of the most valuable
minerals, have as yet been scarcely touched.
Along the whole line of sea-coast, around each
island, and in every river, are to be found the
greatest and richest fisheries in the world. The
best fuel and the most abundant water-powei
are available for the coarser manufactures, for
which an easy and certain market will be found.

78 CANADA.
Trade with other continents is favoured by the
possession of a large number of safe and spacious
harbours ; long, deep, and numerous rivers, and
vast inland seas, supply the means of easy inter
course; and the structure of the country generally
affords the utmost facility for every species of
communication by land. Unbounded materials
of agricultural, commercial and manufacturing
industry are there ; it depends upon the pre
sent decision of the Imperial Legislature to de
termine for whose benefit they are to be rendered
available. The country which has founded and
maintained these colonies at a vast expense of
blood and treasure, may justly expect its com
pensation in turning their unappropriated re
sources to the account of its own redundant po
pulation ; they are the rightful patrimony of
the English people, the ample appanage which
God and Nature have set aside in the New
World for those whose lot has assigned them
but insufficient portion in the Old. Under
wise and free institutions, these great advan-

CANADA. 79
tages may yet be secured to your Majesty's sub
jects ; and a connexion, secured by the link of
kindred origin and mutual benefits,'may continue
to bind to the British Empire the ample terri
tories of its North American provinces, and the
large and flourishing population by which they
will assuredly be filled,"

80

CHAPTER IV.
PiiEVious to my entering into a further exa
mination of the Canada question, it will perhaps
be better to recapitulate, in as few words as
possible, what has already occurred, and the
principal causes of the late insurrection.
When the Canadian provinces were reduced
by the British arms, the inhabitants, being en
tirely French, were permitted to retain their
own laws, their own language in Courts and
public offices, and all their vested rights which
had been granted to them by the French govem
ment. It was a generous, but, as it has been
proved, an unwise policy. The form of govem
ment, as an English colony, was proposed, and
acceded to by the French population, who, gra-

CANADA. 81
tified by the liberality of their new rulers'
cheerfully took the oath of allegiance. For
many years, indeed it may be said until the
close of the war of 1814, the population re
mained almost entirely French. England had
been so long engaged in war, and the annual
expenditure of life in her armies and her navies
was so great, that she could not permit, much
less encourage, emigration.
At the close of the war of 1814, the census
of the population in the two Canadian provinces
was as follows : — In Lower Canada, between
three and four hundred thousand ; in Upper
Canada, from thirty to forty thousand, of which
nineteen-twentieths were of French extraction.
But the emigration during the last twenty-five
years of peace has made a considerable change.
The population of Lower Canada has increased to
six hundred thousand, and that of Upper Canada
now amounts to upwards of four hundred thou
sand. As the emigration has been almost wholly
from the British dominions, it may be now fairly
e3

82 CANADA.
assumed that, taking the two provinces together,
the English' and French population are now on
a par as to numbers ; the English preponderate
in the Upper province as much as the French
do in the Lower. But if we are to consider the
two nations of settlers as to their respective
value as emigrants to the provinces, on the point
of capital, industry, and^ enterprize, the scale
will descend immediately in favour of the Eng
lish population. The French are inactive,
adverse to speculation, or even improvement.
Every habitant is content with his farm as
handed down to him by his progenitor, and the
higher classes who hold the seigneuries are satis
fied with their seignorial rights and the means
of exaction which they afford to them. The pri
vileges of these seigneurs, or lords of the manor,
in Lower Canada, are very extensive, and a bar
to all improvement or advance. They hold the
exclusive right of hunting and fishing ; all the
water privileges, such as the erection of saw
mills, &c., are insured to them. The habitant

CANADA. 83
is even compelled to send his flour to be ground
at the mill of the lord of the manor. At the
sale of every property, the lord of the manor
receives one-twelfth of the proceeds. Thus, if
a farm worth a few hundred pounds was to fall
into the hands of an enterprizing man, and he
was to raise it to the value of thousands, more
than the prime-cost would be deducted for the
lord of the manor if he were compelled to part
with it. This, with the other impediments to
enterprize, has left Lower Canada in a state of
quiescence, and the emigrants who have gone
over have passed it by that they might settle on
the more fertile and free province of Upper
Canada. One of the writers in the daily press
of New York has very truly remarked : —
" When the British first obtained the Cana
das, its commerce consisted of a few peltries, con
veyed to France by the vessels which brought
out the troops and carried back the disbanded
regiments. The lumber trade was unknown.
The importations were a nonentity. While at

84 CANANA.
present many hundreds of vessels are engaged
in the direct timber trade, and more than one
hundred and fifty vessels have been frequently
counted on the river St. Lawrence. These, it
must be remembered, are almost exclusively
owned by British merchants ; while the French
Canadians own the land in the same proportion
as the English do the trade."
It was the knowledge of these facts, and that
the English were every year rising in importance,
(for theyhadnot only secured thewhole trade, but
were gradually occupying the more fertile land of
the Upper province,) which has created the jea
lousy and ill-will, and has been such a source
of irritation to the French inhabitants of the
Lower province. I have dwelt upon these facts
because there is a very general opinion (which
has most unfortunately been acted upon by our
Governments), that the legislature of the province
should be guided by the interests of the majo
rity, and this they have considered to be in
favour of the French population ; whereas in n um-

CANADA. 85
bers they are about equal, and in point of wealth
and importance, the English population are most
decidedlyin tlie advance ; besides that, the former
population would willingly separate themselves
from the mother-country, and therefore deserve
but little favour, while the latter are loyal and
attached to it. The French having the ascen
dancy of five to one in the Lower province, have
done all they can to check improvement. Pub
lic works which have cost large sums, have re
mained uncompleted, because the House of As
sembly in the Lower province has refused to
allow them to be carried on. Indeed, had the
Lower province been allowed to continue in her
career of opposition, she would have eventually
rendered difficult all communication between
the Upper province and the mother-country."
This is acknowledged in Lord Durham's re
port, which says —
" Without going so far as to accuse the As-
sambly of a deliberate design to check the settle
ment and improvement of Lower Canada, it

86 CANADA,
cannot be denied that they looked with conside
rable jealousy and dislike on the increase and
prosperity of what they regarded as a foreign
and hostile race ; they looked on the province as
the patrimony of their own race ; they viewed
it not as a country to be settled, but as one al
ready settled ; and instead of legislating in the
American spirit, and first providing for the
future population of the province, their primary
care was, in the spirit of legislation which pre
vails in the old world, to guard the interests and
feelings of the present race of inhabitants, to
whom they considered the new comers as subor
dinate ; they refused to increase the burthens of
the country by imposing taxes to meet the expen
diture required for improvement, and they also
refused to direct to that object any of the funds
previously devoted to other purposes. The im
provement of the harbour of Montreal was sus
pended, from a political antipathy to a leading
English merchant who had been the most active
of the commissioners, and by whom it had been

CANADA, 87
conducted with the most admirable success. It
is but just to say, that some of the works which
the Assembly authorized and encouraged, were
undertaken on a scale of due moderation, and
satisfactorily perfected and brought into opera
tion. Others, especially the great communica
tions which I have mentioned above, the Assembly
showed a great reluctance to promote or even to
permit. It is true that there was considerable
foundation for their objections to the plan on
which the Legislature of Upper Canada had
commenced some of these works, and to the
mode in which it had carried them on ; but the
English complained that, instead of profiting by
the experience which they might have derived
from this source, the Assembly seemed only to
make its objections a pretext for doing nothing.
The applications for banks, railroads, and canals
were laid on one side until some general measures
could be adopted with regard to such undertak
ings ; but the general measures thus promised

88 CANADA.
were never passed, and the particular enter-
prizes in question were prevented. The adoption
of a registry was refused, on the alleged ground
of its inconsistency with the French institutions
of the province, and no measure to attain this
desirable end in a less obnoxious mode, was pre
pared by the leaders of the Assembly. The
feudal tenure was supported, as a mild and just
provision for the settlement of a new country ;
a kind of assurance given by a committee of the
Assembly, that some steps should be taken to
remove the most injurious incidents of the seig
norial tenure, produced no practical results;
and the enterprizes of the English were still
thwarted by the obnoxious laws of the country.
In all these decisions of the Assembly, in its
discussions, and in the apparent motives of its
conduct, the English population perceived traces
of a desire to repress the influx and the success
of their race. A measure for imposing a tax on
emigrants, though recomniended by the Home

CANADA. 89
Government, and warranted by the policy of
those neighbouring States which give the great
est encouragement to emigration, was argued
on such grounds in the Assembly, that it was
not unjustly regarded as indicative of an inten
tion to exclude any further accession to the
English population ; and the industry of the
EngUsh was thus retarded by this conduct of
the Assembly. Some districts, particularly that
of the Eastern Townships, where the French
race have no footing, were seriously injured by
the refusal of necessary improvements ; and the
EngUsh inhabitants generally regarded the po
licy of the Assembly as a plan for preventing
any further emigration to the province, of stop
ping the growth of English wealth, and of ren
dering precarious the English property already
invested or acquired in Lower Canada."
It may be said, that latterly the French party,
by the inconsiderate yielding of the Government
at home, legislate for both provinces ; and find
ing that they never could compete with the Eng-

90 CANADA,
lishin other points, their object has been to crush
them as much as possible.* The policy pursued
* It was not long after the conquest, that another and
larger class of English settlers began to enter the pro
vince. English capital was attracted to Canada by the
vast quantity and valuable nature of the exportable pro-
duceof the country, andthe great facilities for commerce,
presented by the natural means of internal intercourse-
The ancient trade of the country was conducted on a
much larger and more profitable scale ; and new branches
of industry were explored. The active and regular
habits of the English capitalist drove out of all the more
profitable kinds of industry their inert and careless com
petitors of the French race ; but in respect of the greater
part (almost the whole) of the commerce and manufac
tures of the country, the English cannot be said to have
encroached on the French ; for, in fact, they created
employments and profits which had not previously ex
isted. A few of the ancient race smarted under the loss
occasioned by the success of English competition ; but
all felt yet more acutely the gradual increase of a class
of strangers in whose hands the wealth of the country
appeared to centre, and whose expenditure and influ
ence eclipsed those of the class which had previously
occupied the first position in the country. Nor was the
intrusion of the English limited to commercial enter
prizes. By degrees, large portions of land were occupied
by them ; nor did they confine themselves to the unsettled
and distant country of the townships. The wealthy capi
talist invested his money in the purchase of seignorial

CANADA, 91
by M. Papineau and his adherents, has therefore
been ;o li^op the Lower Province entirely in the
properties ; and it is estimated, that at the present mo
ment full half of the more valuable seignories are actually
owned by English proprietors. The seigniorial tenure is
one so little adapted to our notions of proprietary rights,
that the new seigneur, without any consciousness or in
tention of injustice, in many instances exercised his
rights in a manner which would appear perfectly fair in
this country, but which the Canadian settler reasonably
regarded as oppressive. The English purchaser found
an equally unexpected and just cause of complaint in
that uncertainty of the laws, which rendered his posses
sion of property precarious, and in those incidents of the
tenure which rendered its alienation or improvement diffi
cult. But an irritation, greater than that occasioned by
the transfer of the large properties, was caused by the
competition of the English with the French farmer.
The English farmer carried with him the experience and
habits of the most improved agriculture in the world.
He settled himself in the townships bordering on the
seignories, and brought a fresh soil aud improved culti
vation to compete with the worn-out and slovenly farm
of the habitant. He often took the very farm which the
Canadian settler had abandoned, and, by superior ma
nagement, made that a source of profit which had only
impoverished his predecessor. The ascendancy which
an unjust favoritism had contributed to give to the
English race in the government and the legal profession,
their own superior energy, skill and capital secured to

92 CANADA.
hands of the French, and with this view they
have, as much as possible, prevented British
settlers from obtaining land in Lower Canada ;
and that their rule might be absolute, over the
French population, they have prevented their
education, so that they might blindly follow those
who guided them. These two assertions will be
fully borne out by an examination into the pub
lic records.
The land being almost wholly in the posses
sion of the French, M. Papineau's first object
was, to make the possession of landed property
the tenure by which any employment of trust
under government could be held ; and in this
great object he succeeded. It must at once be
perceived that, by this regulation alone, all
them in every branch of industry. They have developed
the resources of the country ; they have constructed or
improved its means of communication ; they have cre
ated its internal and foreign commerce. The entire
wholesale, and a large portion of the retail trade of the
province, with the most profitable and flourishing farms,
are now in the hands of this numerical minority of the
population.

CANADA, 93
British residents were excluded, and that if pos
sessed of capital to any amount, whatever their
stake in the colony might be, they were ruled
and dictated to by the French party. No person
could be an officer in the militia unless he was a
land-owner. The wealthy English merchant had
to fall into the ranks, and be ordered about by
an ignorant French farmer, a man who could not
write or read, but made his cross to any paper
presented to him for his signature.
By another enactment the grand juries were to
be selected from those who were land-owners,
and the consequence was, that in two grand
juries selected in two succeeding years, there was
only one man who could write or read out of the
whole number, and the others fixed their cross
to the bills found.
What was still more absurd was, that the
office of trustee for the schools could only be held
by the same tenure, and in the Act. passed, it is
provided, that the trustees for national education
may be permitted to affix their cross to the school

94 CANADA.
reports, a more convincing proof of the state of
ignorance in which the Canadian French popula
tion have been held and acknowledged to be so by
the French party, by the making such a proviso
in the statute. I had a convincing proof myself of
the ignorance of theFrench population during the
rebellion in Lower Canada. I handed a printed
circular to about four hundred prisoners whowere
collected, for one of them to read aloud tothe rest,
and there was not one who could read print.
Having, secured the party in the province,
the next object of M. Papineau and his adhe
rents was, to blind the Government at home :
they sent home a list of grievances which re
quired redress, and in this they were joined by
the English republican party. Among other
demands, they insisted upon the right to the
Lower Assembly having the control of the
colonial revenues. So eamest was the Govern
ment at home to satisfy them, that every conces
sion was made, and even the last great question
of controlling their own expenditure was con-

CANADA. 95
sented to, upon the sole condition that the civil
Ust, for the payment of the salary of the gover
nor and other state officers, was secured.
What was the conduct of M. Papineau and
his party as soon as they had gained their point.?
They immediately broke their faith with the
Government at home, and refused to vote the
sum for the civil list.
For three years, the governor and all the
public officers were without their salaries, which
were at last provided for by a vote of the English
Parliament at home. This nefarious conduct of
the French party had one good effect, it created
a disunion with the English republican party,
who, although they wished for reform, would
be no participators in such a breach of honour.
That for many years there has been sad mis
management on the part of the Government at
home, cannot be denied, but the error has been the
continual yielding to French clamour and mis
representation, and the Government having lost
sight of the fact that the English population

96 CANADA.
were rapidly increasing, and had an equal right
to the protection of the mother-country. It is
the English population who have had real cause
of complaint, and who are justified in demanding
redress ; the French have been only too well
treated, and their demands became more im
perious in proportion to the facility with which
the Government yielded to them in their earnest,
but mistaken, desire to put an end to the agita
tion of M. Papineau and his party. Mistaking
the forbearance of the English government for
weakness, M. Papineau issued his inflammatory
appeals ; the people were incited to rebellion ;
but even this conduct did not seem to rouse the
Government at home, who had probably formed
the idea that the French Canadian was too peace
ful to have recourse to arms. Emboldened by
this conduct on the part of Government, which
was ascribed to fear, and finding themselves sup
ported by Mr. Joseph Hume and Mr. Roebuck
at home, the republican party in Upper Canada
openly declared itself, and a portion of the

CANADA. 97
Canadian press issued the most treasonable arti
cles without molestation. The Americans were
not idle in fomenting this ill-will towards the
mother-country in the Upper Province, and the
Papineau party proceeded to more active mea
sures. Arrangements were made for a general
rising of the Lower Province ; the meeting of St.
Charles took place, and resolutions were passed of
a nature which could no longer be overlooked by
the Provincial Government. For many months
previous to the meeting at St. Charles, the
Provincial Government had been aroused and
aware of the danger, and Lord Gosford per
ceived the necessity of acting contrary to the
orders received from home. Proofs had been
obtained against those who were most active in
the intended rebellion, and at last warrants were
issued by the Attorney- General for their appre
hension. It was this sudden and unexpected
issue of the warrants which may be said to have
saved the provinces. It defeated all the plans
of the conspirators, who had not intended to
VOL III. ^

98 CANADA.
have flown to arms until the newt Spring, when
their arrangements would have been fully made
and organized. This fact I had from Bouchette,
and three or four of the ringleaders, whoin I
visited in prison. They intended to have had
the leaf on the tree, and the cold weather over,
before they commenced operations ; and had
they waited till then the result might have been
very serious, but the issue of the warrants for
the apprehension of the leaders placed them in
the awkward dilemma of either being deprived
of them, or of having recourse to arms before
their plans were fuUy matured. The latter was
the alternative preferred ; and the results of this
unsuccessful attempt are well described in Lord
Durham's report : —
" The treasonable attempt of the French
party to carry its political objects into effect by
an appeal to arms, brought these hostile races
into general and armed colUsion. I will not
dwell on the melancholy scenes exhibited in the
progress of the contest, or the fierce passions

CANADA. 99
which held an unchecked sway during the insur
rection, or immediately after its suppression.
It is not difficult to conceive how greatly the
evils, which I have described as previously ex
isting, have been aggravated by the wai- ; how
terror and revenge nourished, in each portion of
the population, a bitter and irreconcileable hatred
to each other, and to the institutions of the
country. The French population, who had for
some time exercised a great and increasing power
through the medium of the House of Assembly,
found their hopes unexpectedly prostrated in the
dust. The physical force which they had vaunted
was called into action, and proved to be utterly
inefficient. The hope of recovering their pre
vious ascendancy under a constitution similar
to that suspended, almost ceased to exist. Re
moved from all actual share in the government
of their country, they brood in sullen silence over
the memory of their fallen countrymen, of their
burnt villages, of their ruined property, of their
extinguished ascendancy, and of their humbled
F 2

100 CANADA.
nationality. To the Government and the English
they ascribe these wrongs, and nourish against
both an indiscriminating and eternal animosity.
Nor have the English inhabitants forgotten in
their triumph, the terror with which they sud
denly saw themselves surrounded by an insurgent
majority, and the incidents which alone ap
peared to save them from the unchecked domi
nation of their antagonists. They find themselves
still a minority in the midst of a hostile and
organized people ; apprehensions of secret con
spiracies and sanguinary designs haunt them
unceasingly, and their only hope of safety is
supposed to rest on systematically terrifj'ing
• and disabling the French, and in preventing a
majority of that race from ever again being
predominant in any portion of the legislature of
the province. I describe in strong terms the
feelings which appear to me to animate each
portion of the population ; and the picture which
I draw represents a state of things so little
familiar to the personal experience of the people

CANADA. 101
of this country, that many will probably regard
it as the work of mere imagination ; but I feel
confident that the accuracy and moderation of
my description will be acknowledged by all who.
have seen the state of society in Lower Canada
during the last year. Nor do I exaggerate the
inevitable constancy, any more than the intensity
of this animosity. Never again will the present
generation of French Canadians yield a loyal
submission to a British Government ; never
again will the English population tolerate the
authority of a House of Assembly in which the
French shall possess or even approximate to a
majority." Although M. Papineau and his party were
very willing to fraternize with the discontented
party in Upper Canada, and to call forth the
sympathy and the assistance of the Americans,
their real intentions and wishes were to have made
the Canadas an independent French province,
in strict alliance with France.* The assistance
* " Nor does there appear to be the slightest chance
of putting an end to this animosity during the present

102 CANADA.
of the Upper Canada party would have been
accepted until they were no longer required,
generation. Passions inflamed during so long a period,
cannot speedily be calmed. The state of education
which I have previously described as placing the pea
santry entirely at the mercy of agitators, tbe total ab
sence of any class of persons, or any organization of
authority that could counteract this mischievous influ
ence, and the serious decline in the district of Montreal
of the influence of the clergy, concur in rendering it
absolutely impossible for the Government to produce -any
better state of feeling among the French population. It
is even impossible to impress on a people so circum
stanced the salutary dread of the power of Great Britain,
which the presence of a large military force in the
province might be expected to produce. I have been
informed, by witnesses so numerous and so trustworthy
that I cannot doubt the correctness of their statements,
that the peasantry were generally ignorant of the large
amount of force which was sent into their country last
year. The newspapers that circulate among them had
informed them that Great Britain had no troops to send
out; that in order to produce an impression on the minds
of the country-people, the same regiments were marched
backwards and forwards in different directions, and
represented as additional arrivals from home. This
explanation was promulgated among the people by the
agitators of each village ; and I have no doubt that the
mass of the inhabitants really believed that the govern
ment was endeavouring to impose on them by this
species of fraud. It is a population with whom au-

CANADA. 103
and then there would have been an attempt, and
very probably a successful one, to drive away
thority has no means of contact or explanation. It is
difficult even to ascertain what amount of influence the
ancient leaders of the French party continue to possess.
[The name of M. Papineau is still cherished by the
people ; and the idea is current that, at the appointed
time, he will return, at the head of an immense army,
and re-establish " La Nation- Canadienne."] But there
is great reason to doubt whether his name be not used
as a, mere watchword ; whether the people are not in
fact running entirely counter to his counsels and policy ;
and whether they are not really under the guidance of
separate petty agitators, who have no plan but that of
a senseless and reckless determination to show in
every way their hostility to the British Government and
English race. Their ultimate designs and hopes are
equally unintelligible. Some vague expectation of ab
solute independence still seems to delude them. The
national vanity, which is a remarkable ingredient in
their character, induces many to flatter themselves with
the idea of a Canadian Republic ; the sounder infor
mation of others has led them to perceive that a sepa
ration from Great Britain must be followed by a junction
with the great Confederation on their southern frontier.
But they seem apparently reckless of the consequences,
provided they can wreak their vengeance on the English.
There is no people against which early associations and
every conceivable difference of manners and opinions.

104 CANADA.
by every means in their power the English
settlers in Upper Canada to the United States.
The Americans, on the other hand, cared nothing
have implanted in the Canadian mind a more ancient
and rooted national antipathy than that which they feel
against the people of the United States. Their more
discerning leaders feel that their chances of presei-ving
their nat^ionality would be greatly diminished by an in
corporation with the United States ; and recent symp
toms of Anti-Catholic feeling in New England, well
known to the Canadian population, have generated a
very general belief that their religion, which even they
do not accuse the British party of assailing, would find
little favour or respect from their neighbours. Yet none
even of these considerations weigh against their present
all-absorbing hatred of the English; audi am persuaded
that they would purchase vengeance and a momentary
triumph by the aid of any enemies, or submission to any
yoke. This provisional but complete cessation of their
ancient antipathy to the Americans, is now admitted even
by those who most strongly denied it during the last
spring, and who then asserted that an American war
would as completely unite the whole population against
the common enemj', as it did in 1813. My subsequent
experience leaves no doubt in my mind that the views
which were contained in my despatch on the 9th of
August are perfectly correct; and that an invading
American army might rely on the co-operation of
almost the entire French population of Lower Canada."

CANADA. 105
about the French or English grievances ; their
sympathy arose from nothing less than a wish-
to add the Canadas to their already vast ter
ritories, and to drive the English from their
last possessions in America ; but they also knew
how to wear the cloak as well as M. Papineau,
and had the insurrection been successful, botlr
French and English would by this time have
been subjected to their control, and M. Papineau
would have found that he had only been a tool
in the hands of the more astute and ambitious
Americans. Such is my conviction : but this is
certain, that whatever might have been the re
sult of the former insurrection, or whatever may
be the result of any future one (for the troubles
are not yet over), the English in Upper Canada
must fall a sacrifice to either one party or the
other, unless they can succeed (which, with
their present numbers and situation, will be
difficult) in overpowering them both.
It may be inquired, what were the causes of
discontent which occasioned the partial rising in
f3

106 CANADA.
Upper Canada. Strange to say, although Mac
kenzie and his party were in concert and corres
pondence with M. Papineau, the chief cause of
discontent arose from the partiaUty shewn by
the English government to the French Canadians
in Lower Canada ; their grievances were their
own, and they had no feUow-feeling with the
French Canadians. If they had any prepos
session at all, it was in favour of joining the
American States, and to this they were insti
gated by the number of Americans who had
settled in Upper Canada. There were several
minor causes of discontent : the Scotch emi
grants were displeased because the government
had decided that the clergy revenues were to be
allotted only for the support of the Episcopal
church, and not for the Presbyterian. But the
great discontent was because the English settlers
considered that they had been" unfairly treated,
and sacrificed by the government at home. But
although discontent was general, a wish to rebel
was not so, and here it was that Mackenzie found

CANADA. 107
himself in error, and M. Papineau was deceived;
instead of being joined by thousands, as they
expected, from the Upper Province, they could
only muster a few hundreds, who were easily
dispersed ; the feelings of loyalty prevailed, and
those whom the rebel-leaders expected would
have joined • the standard of insurrection, en
rolled themselves to trample it under foot. The
behaviour of the settlers in Upper Canada was
worthy of all praise: they had just grounds of
complaint ; they had been opposed atid sacrificed
to a malevolent and ungrateful French party in
the Lower Province ; yet when the question
arose as to whether they should assist, or put
down the insurrection, they immediately forgot
their own wrongs, and proved their loyalty to
their country.
The party who adhered to Mackenzie may
well be considered as an American party ; for
Upper Canada had been so neglected and un-
cared for, that the Americans had already ob
tained great influence there. Indeed, when it is

108 CANADA.
stated that Mathews and Lount, the two mem
bers of the Upper House of Assembly who were
executed for treason, were both Americans, it
is evident that the Americans had even obtained
a share in the legislation of the province.
When I passed through the Upper Province, I
remarked that, independently of some of the best
land being held by Americans, the landlords of
the inns, the contractors for transporting the
mails, and drivers of coaches, were almost with--
out exception, Americans.
One cause of the Americans wishing that the
Canadas should be wrested from the EngUsh
was that, by an Act of the Legislature, they
were not able to hold lands in the province. It
is true that they could purchase them, but if
they wished to sell them, the title was not valid.
Colonel Prince, whose name was so conspi
cuous during the late troubles, brought in a bill
to allow Americans to hold land in Upper Ca
nada, but the bill was thrown out. It scarcely
need be observed that Colonel Prince is now as

CANADA, 109
violent an opponent to the bill.* He has had
quite enough of Americans in Upper Canada.
It was fortunate for the country that there
was such a man as Sir John Colborne, and
• Colonel Prince is the gentleman who took with his
own hands General Sutherland and his aid-de-camp, and
who ordered the Yankee pirates to he shot. Mr. Hume
has thought proper to make a motion in the House of
Commons, reprobating this act as one of murder. I
believe there is little difference whether a man breaks
into your house, and steals your money; or burns your
house, and robs you of your cattle and other property.
One is as much a case of burglary as the other. In the
first instance you are justified in taking the robber's life,
and why not in the second ? Those people who attacked
the inhabitants of a country with whom they were in
profound peace, were disowned by their own govern
ment, consequently they were outlaws and pirates, and
it is a pity that Sutherland and every other prisoner
taken had not been immediately shot. Mr. Hume may
flare up in the House of Commons, but I should like to
know what Mr. Hume's opinion would be if he was the
party who had had all his property stolen and his house
burnt over his head, in the depth of a Canadian winter. I
suspect he would say a very different say, as he has no
small respect for the meum; indeed, I should be sorry to
be the party to be sentenced by Mr. Hume, if I had stolen
a k\\ ducks out of the honourable gentleman's duck de
coys near Yarmouth.

110 CANADA.
aided by Sir Francis Head, at that period in the
command of the two provinces. Of the first it is
not necessary that I should add my tribute of
admiration to that which Sir John Colborne has
already so unanimously received. Sir Francis
Head has not been quite so fortunate, and has
been accused (most unjustly) of rashness and want
of due precaution. Now the only grounds upon
which this charge can be preferred is, his sending
down to Sir John Colborne all the regular troops,
when he was requested if possible so to do: I
was at this period at Toronto, and as I had the
pleasure of being intimate with Sir Francis, I
had full knowledge of the causes of this decision.
Sir Francis said, " I have but two hundred regular
troops ; they will be of great service in the Lower
Province, when added to those which Sir John
Colborne already has under his command. Here
they are not sufficient to stem an insurrection if
it be formidable. I do not know what may be
the strength of the rebels until they show them
selves, but I think I do know the number who

CANADA. Ill
will support me. Should the rebels prove in
great force, these two companies of regular troops
will be overwhelmed, and what I consider is,
not any partial success of the rebel party, but
thamoral effect which success over regular troops
will create. There are, I am sure, thousands who
are at present undecided, who, if they heard that
the regular troops, of whom they have such dread,
were overcome, would join the rebel cause. This
is what I fear ; as for any advantage gained over
me, when I have only militia to oppose to them,
that is of little consequence. When Sir John
Colborne has defeated them in Lower Canada,
he can then come up here, with the regular
troops." I believe these to be the very words used by
Sir Francis Head when he asked my opinion on
the subject, and I agreed with him most cor-
diaUy ; but if any one is inclined to suppose,
from the light, playful, and I must say, undi
plomatic style of Sir Francis's despatches, that
he had not calculated every chance, and made

112 CANADA.
every disposition which prudence and foresight
could suggest, they are very much mistaken.
The most perfect confidence was reposed in him
by all parties ; and the event proved that he was
not out in his calculations, for with the militia
alone he put down the rebellion. During the
short time from Sir F. Head's going out, until
he requested to be recalled, he did more good
to that province, and more to secure the English
dominion than could be imagined, and had he
not been governor of the province for some time
previous to the rebellion, I strongly surmise
that it would have been lost to this country.
The events of the rebellion are too fresh in
the reader's memory to be mentioned here. It is,
however, necessary to examine into the present
state of affairs, for it must not be supposed that
the troubles have yet ceased.
First, as to the French Canadian party. If I
am not very much mistaken, this may be con
sidered as broken up ; the severe lesson received
from the EngUsh troops, and the want of con-

CANADA. 113
fidence in their leaders from their cowardice and
inability, will prevent the French Canadians
from again taking up arms. They are naturally
a peaceable, inoffensive, good-tempered people,
and nothing but the earnest instigation of a por
tion of their priests, the notaries, and the doctors,
(the three parties who most mix with the habi-
tans), would have ever roused them to rebellion.
As it is, I consider that they are efficiently
quelled, and will be quiet, at least for one genera
tion, if the measures of the Government at home
are judicious. The cause of the great influence
obtained by the people I have specified over
the habitans is well explained in Lord Durham's
Report. Speaking of the public seminaries, he
says : —
" The education given in these establish
ments greatly resembles the kind given in the
English public schools, though it is rather more
varied. It is entirely in the hands of the Ca
tholic clergy. The number of pupils in these
establishments is estimated altogether at about a

114 CANADA.
thousand ; and they turn out every year, as far
I could ascertain, between two and three hun
dred young men thus educated. Almost all of
these are members of the family of some habi
tant, whom the possession of greater quickness
than his brothers has induced the father or the
curate of the parish to select and send to the
seminary. These young men, possessing a de
gree of information immeasurably superior to
that of their families, are naturaUy averse to
what they regard as descending to the humble
occupations of their parents. A few become
priests ; but as the military and naval professions
are closed against the colonist, the greater part
can only find a position suited to their notions
of their own qualifications in the learned pro
fessions of advocate, notary, and surgeon. As
from this cause these professions are greatly
overstocked, we find every village in Lower Ca
nada fiUed with notaries and surgeons, with
little practice to occupy their attention, and
living among their own families, or at any rate

CANADA. 115
among exactly the same class. Thus the per
sons of most education in every village belong
to the same families, and the same original
station in life, as the illiterate habitans whom I
have described. They are connected with them
by all the associations of early youth, and the
ties of blood. The most perfect equality always
marks their intercourse, and the superior in
education is separated by no barrier of manners,
or pride, or distinct interests, from the singu
larly ignorant peasantry by which he is sur
rounded. He combines, therefore, the influences
of superior knowledge, and social equality, and
wields a power over the mass, which I do not
believe that the educated class of any other por
tion of the world possess."
The second party, which are the discontented,
yet loyal English of Upper Canada, are entitled
to, and it is hoped will receive the justice they
claim : they well deserved it. It is the duty, as
well as the interest of the mother-country to foster
loyalty, enterprize, and activity, and it is chiefly

116 CANADA.
in Upper Canada that it is to be found. One
great advantage has arisen from the late troubles,
which is, that they have driven most of the
Americans out of the province, and have created
such a feeling of indignation and hatred towards
them in the breasts of the Upper Canadians,
that there is no chance of their fraternizing for
at least another half century. Nothing could
have proved more unfortunate to the American
desire of obtaining the Canadas than the result
of the late rebellions. Should the Upper Cana
dians, from any continued inj ustice and misrule
on the part of the mother-country, be determined
to separate, at all events it will not be to ally
themselves with the Americans. In Lord Dur
ham's Report we have the following remarks : —
" I have, in despatches of a later date than
that to which I have had occasion so frequently
to refer, called the attention of the Home Go
vernment to the growth of this alarming state of
feeling among the EngUsh population. The
course of the late troubles, and the assistance

CANADA. 117
which the French insurgents derived from some
citizens of the United States, have caused a most
intense exasperation among the Canadian loyalists
against the American government and people.
Their papers have teemed with the most un
measured denunciations of the good faith of the
authorities, of the character and morality of the
people, and of the political institutions of the
United States. Yet, under this surface of hos
tility, it is easy to detect a strong under-current
of an exactly contrary feeling. As the general
opinion of the American people became more
apparent during the course of the last year, the
English of Lower Canada were surprised to find
how strong, in spite of the first burst of sympa
thy, with a people supposed to be struggling for
independence, was the real sympathy of their
republican neighbours with the great objects of
the minority. Without abandoning their at
tachment to their mother-country, they have
begun, as men in a state of uncertainty are
apt to do, to calculate the probable consequences

118 CANADA.
of a separation, if it should unfortunately occur,
and be followed by an incorporation with the
LTnited States. In spite of the shock which it
would occasion their feelings, they undoubtedly
think that they should find some compensation
in the promotion of their interests ; they believe
that the influx of American emigration would
speedily place the English race in a majority ;
they, talk frequently and loudly of what has
occured in Louisiana, where, by means which
they utterly misrepresent, the end nevertheless
of securing an English predominance over a
French population has undoubtedly been at
tained ; they assert very confidently, that the
Americans would make a very speedy and deci
sive settlement of the pretensions of the French ;
and they believe that, after the first shock of an
entirely new political state had been got over,
they and their posterity would share in that
amazing progress, and that great material pros
perity, which every day's experience shows them
is the lot of the people of the United States.

CANADA. 119
I do not believe that such a feeling has yet
sapped their strong allegiance to the British
empire ; but tlieir allegiance is founded on their
deep-rooted attachment to British, as distin
guished from French institutions. And if they
find that that authority which they have main
tained against its recent assailants, is to be ex
erted in such a manner as to subject them again
to what they call a French dominion, I feel per
fectly confident that they "would attempt to avert
the result, by courting, on any terms, an union
with an Anglo-Saxon people."
Here I do not agree with his lordship. That
such was the feeUng previous to the insurrec
tion I believe, and, notwithstanding the defeat
of the insurgents, would have remained so, had
it not been for the piratical attacks of the
Americans, which their own government could
not control. This was a lesson to the Upper
Canadians. They perceived that there was no
security for life or property — no law to check
outrage— and they felt severely the consequences

120 CANADA.
of this state of things in the destruction of their
property and the attempts upon their lives by a
nation professing to be in amity with them. Fra
ternize ¦with the Americans the Upper Canadians
will not. They may be subdued by them if they
throw off the allegiance and protection of the
mother-country, as they would be hemmed in
between two hostile parties, and find it almost
impossible, with their present population, to
withstand their united efforts. But should
a conflict of this kind take place, and the
Upper Canadians be allowed but a short period
of repose, or could they hold the Americans in
check for a time, they would sweep the whole
race of the Lower Canadians from the face of
the earth. Their feelings towards the Lower
Canadians are well explained in Lord Durham's
Report : —
" In the despatch above referred to I also
described the state of feeling among the Eng
lish population, nor can I encourage a hope that
that portion of the community is at all more

CANADA. 121
inclined to any settlement of the present quarrel
that would leave any share of power to the hos
tile race. Circumstances having thrown the
English into the ranks of the government, and
the folly of their opponents having placed them,
on the other hand, in a state of permanent col
lision with it, the former possess the advantage
of having the force of government, and the au
thority of the laws on their side in the present
stage of the contest. Their exertions during
the recent troubles have contributed to maintain
the supremacy of the law, and the continuance
of the connexion with Great Britain ; but it
would, in my opinion, be dangerous to rely on
the continuance of such a state of feeUng as now
prevails among them, in the event of a different
policy being adopted by the Imperial Govern
ment. Indeed, the prevalent sentiment among
them is one of anything but satisfaction with the
course which has been long pursued, with refer
ence to Lower Canada, by the British legisla
ture and executive. The calmer view, which
VOL ill. G

122 CANADA.
distant spectators are enabled to take of the
conduct of the two parties, and the disposition
which is evinced to make a fair adjustment of the
contending claims, appear iniquitous and inju
rious in the eyes of men who think that they
alone have any claim to the favour of that go
vernment, by which they alone have stood fast.
They complain loudly and bitterly of the whole
course pursued by the Imperial Govemment,
with respect to the quarrel of the two races, as
having been founded on an utter ignorance of, or
disregard to the real question at issue, as having
fostered the mischievous pretensions of French
nationality, and as having, by the vacillation
and inconsistency which marked it, discouraged
loyalty and fomented rebellion. Every measure
of clemency, or even justice, towards their oppo
nents, they regard ¦with jealousy, as indicating
a disposition towards that conciliatory policy
which is the subject of their angry recollection ;
for they feel that being a minority, any return
to the due course of constitutional government

CANADA. 123
would again subject them to a French majority ;
and to this I am persuaded they would never
peaceably submit. They do not hesitate to say
that they wiU not -tolerate much longer the be
ing made the sport of parties at home, and that
if the mother-country forgets what is due to the
loyal and enterprizing men of her own race, they
must protect themselves. In the significant
language of one of their own ablest advocates,
they assert that ' Lower Canada must be Eng
lish, at the expense, if necessary, of not being
British: "
The third party, which is the American, is
the only one at present inclined to move, and
in all probabUity they will commence as soon as
the winter sets in ; for however opposed to this
shameful violation of the laws of nations the
President, officers, and respectable portion of
the American Union may be, it is certain that
the majority are represented by these marauders,
and the removal of our troops would be a signal
for immediate aggression. G 2

124 CANADA.
The Americans will tell you th^t the sym
pathy, as they term it, only exists on the borders
of the lakes ; that it extends no further, and
that they are all opposed to it, &c. Such is not
¦the case. The greatest excitement which was
shewn any where was perhaps at Albany, the
capital of the State of New York, on the Hud
son river, and two hundred miles at least from
the boundary; but not only there, but even on
'the Mississippi the feeling was the same ; in
fact, it was the feeling of the majority. In a
letter I received the other day from a friend at
New York, there is the following remark : —
" Bill Johnson (the pirate on lake Ontario)
held his levees here during the winter. They
were thronged with all the best 'people of the
-city." Now, the quarter from whence I received this
intelUgence is to be relied upon ; and that it
was the case I have no doubt. And why should
4;hey feel such interest about a pirate like BiU
Johnson ? Simply because he had assailed the

CANADA. 125.
English. This may appear a trifle; but a
straw thrown up shews in what direction the
wind blows.
At present there is no want of troops to de
fend the Canadas against a foreign attack, and
Uttle inclination to rebel in the provinces them
selves. That now required is, that the legis
lature should be improved so as to do justice to
all parties, and such an encouragement given to.
enterprize and industry as to induce a more ex
tended emigration.
Lord Durham has very correctly observed,,
that it is not now a conflict of principles be
tween the EngUsh and French, but a conflict of
the two races. He says : —
" I expected to find a Contest between a go
vernment and a people: I found two nations
warring in the bosom of a single state : I found
a struggle, not of principles, but of races ; and
I perceived that it would be idle to attempt any
amelioration of laws or institutions until we

126 CANADA.
could first succeed in terminating a deadly ani
mosity that now separates the inhabitants of
Lower Canada into the hostile divisions of
French and English."
But why should this conflict between the two
races have taken place ? Firstly, because the
French, by the injudicious generosity of our
Government in allowing/ them to retain their
language in public affairs, with all their cus
toms and usages, were aUowed to remain a
French colony, instead of amalgamating them
with the English, as might have been done.
Subsequently, because the interests of the Eng
lish colonists have been sacrificed to the French,
¦who, nevertheless, became disaffected, and would
have thrown off the EngUsh dominion. Lord
Durham very correctly adds : —
" Such is the lamentable and hazardous state
of things produced by the conflict of races which
has so long divided the province of Lower Ca
nada, and which has assumed the formidable

CANADA. 127
and irreconcileable character which I have de
picted. In describing the nature of this con
flict, I have specified the causes in which it
originated ; and though I have mentioned the
conduct and constitution of the colonial govern
ment, as modifying the character of the struggle,
I have not attributed to political causes a state
of things which would, I believe, under any
political institutions have resulted from the very
composition of society. A jealousy between two
races, so long habituated to regard each other
¦with hereditary enmity, and so differing in
habits, in language, and in laws, would have
been inevitable under any form of govemment.
That liberal institutions and prudent poUcy
might have changed the character of the strug
gle, I have no doubt ; but they could not have
prevented it ; they could only have softened its
character, and brought it more speedily to a
more decisive and peaceful conclusion. Un
happily, however, the system of government

128 CANADA.
pursued in Lower Canada has been based on
the poUcy of perpetuating that very separation
of the races, and encouraging these very notions
of conflicting nationalities which it ought to
have been the first and chief care of Govemment
to check and extinguish. From the period of
the conquest to the present time, the conduct
of the Government has aggravated the evil, and
the origin of the present extreme disorder may
be found in the institutions by which the cha
racter of the colony was determined."
We have, therefore, to legislate between the
two parties, and let us, previous to entering upon
the question, examine into their respective
merits. On the one hand we have a French
population who, after having received every fa
vour which could be granted with a due regard
to freedom, have insisted upon, and have ob
tained much more, and who in return for aU
the kindness heaped upon them, excited by envy
and jealousy of an energy and enterprize of which

CANADA. 129
they were incapable, have risen in rebellion, with
the hopes of making themselves an independent
nation. On the other hand we have a generous, high-
spirited race of ourown blood, and migrating from-
our own soil, who, having been unfairly treated,
and having just grounds of complaint against
the mother-country, have nevertheless forgotten-
their own wrongs, and, to a man, flown to arms,,
willing to shed their blood in defence of the
mother-covintry. Add to this, we have the French inhabiting
a comparatively sterile country, without activity
or enterprize ; the English, in a country fertile to ¦
excess, possessing most of the capital, and the
only portion of the colonists to whom we can
safely confide the defence of that which I trust I
have proved to the reader to be the most impor
tant outpost in the English dominions. Bearing
all this in mind, and also remembering that if
the emigration to Upper Canada again revive,
g3

130 CANADA.
that this latter population wiU in a few years
be in an immense majority, and will ultimately
wholly swallow up aU the former, we may now
proceed to consider what should be the policy
of the mother-country.

131

CHAPTER V.
In the last chapter I pointed out that in our
future legislation for these provinces, wc had
to decide between the English and French
inhabitants; up to the present the French
have been in power, and have been invariably
favoured by the Government, much to the injury
of the EngUsh population. Before I offer any
opinion on this question, let us inquire what
has been the conduct of the French in their ex
ercise of their rights as a Legislative Assembly,
and what security they offer us, to incline us
again to put confidence in them. In examining
into this question, I prefer, as a basis, the Re
port of Lord Durham, made to the English
Parliament. His lordship, adverting to the state

132 CANADA.
of hostility between the representative and exe
cutive powers in our colonies, prefaces with a
remark relative to our own country, which I
think late events do not fully bear out; he
says : —
" However partial the monarch might be to
particular ministers, or however he might nave
personally committed himself to their policy, he
has been invariably constrained to abandon both,
as soon as the opinion of the people has been
irrevocably pronounced against them, through
the medium of the House of Commons."
This he repeats in an after part of the Re
port : —
" When a ministry ceases to command a ma
jority in Parliament on great questions of policy,
its doom is immediately sealed ; and it would
appear to us as strange to attempt, for any time,
to carry on a Government by means of ministers
perpetually in a minority, as it would be to pass
laws ¦with a majority of votes against them."

CANADA. 133
If such be an essential part of our constitu
tion, as his lordship asserts, surely we have
suffered an inroad into it lately.
That the system of Colonial Government is
defective, I grant, but it is not so much from
the check which the Legislative Council puts
upon the Representative Assembly, as from the
secresy of the acts and decisions of that council.
This, indeed, his lordship admits in some cases,
and I think that I can fully establish that, without
this salutary check, the Legislative Assembly of
Lower Canada would have soon voted themselves
Free and Independent States. Lord Durham
observes : —
" I am far from concurring in the censure
which the Assembly and its advocates have at
tempted to cast on the acts of the Legislative
CouncU. I have no hesitation in saying that
many of the bills which it is most severely
blamed for rejecting, were bills, which it could
not have passed without a dereliction of its duty

134 CANADA,
to the constitution, the connexion with Great
Britain, and the whole English population of
the colony. If there is any censure to be passed
on its general conduct, it is for having confined
itself to the merely negative and defensive duties
of a legislative body ; for having too frequently
contented itself with merely defeating objection
able methods of obtaining desirable ends, ¦with
out completing its duty by proposing measures,
which would have achieved the good in ¦view
without the mixture of evil. The national ani
mosities which pervaded the legislation of the
Assembly, and its thorough want of legislative
skill or respect for constitutional principles, ren
dered almost all its bills obnoxious to the objec
tions made by the Legislative Council ; and the
serious evil which their enactment would have
occasioned, convinces me that the colony has
reason to congratulate itself on the existence of
an institution which possessed and used the
power of stopping a course of legislation that,

CANADA, 135
if successful, would have sacrificed every British
interest, and overthrown every guarantee of
order and national liberty."
Again : —
" One glaring attempt which was made directly
and openly to subvert the constitution of the
country, was, by passing a bill for the formal re
peal of those parts of the 31 Geo. 3, c. 31, com
monly called the Constitutional Act, by which
the constitution and powers of the Legislative
Council were established. It can hardly be
supposed that the framers of this bill were un
aware, or hoped to make any concealment of the
obvious illegaUty of a measure, which, commenc
ing as all Canadian Acts do, by a recital of the
31 Geo. 3, as the foundation of the legislative
authority of the Assembly, proceeded immedi
ately to infringe some of the most important pro
visions of that very statute ; nor can it be sup
posed that the Assembly hoped really to carry
into effect this extraordinary assumption of
power, inasmuch as the bill could derive no legal

136 CANADA,
effect from passing the Lower House, unless it
should subsequently receive the assent of the
very body which it purported to annihUate."
Take again the following observations of his
lordship : —
"Butthe evilsresultingfromsuchopen attempts
to dispense with the constitution were small, in
comparison with the disturbance of the regular
course of legislation by systematic abuse of con
stitutional forms, for the purpose of depriving
the other branches of the legislature of all real
legislative authority.
" It remained, however, for the Assembly of
Lower Canada to reduce the practice to a re
gular system, in order that it might have the
most important institutions of the province peri
odically at its mercy, and use the necessities of
the government and the community for the pur
pose of extorting the concession of whatever
demands it might choose to make. Objection
able in itself, on account of the uncertainty and
continual changes which it tended to introduce

CANADA. 137
into legislation, this system of temporary laws
derived its worst character from the facilities
which it afforded to the practice of ' tacking '
together various legislative measures.
" A singular instance of this occurred in 1836,
with respect to the renewal of the jury law,
to which the Assembly attached great impor
tance, and to which the Legislative Council felt
a strong repugnance, on account of its having
in effect placed the juries entirely in the hands
of the French portion of the population. In
order to secure the renewal of this law, the As
sembly coupled it in the same bill by which it
renewed the tolls of the Lachine Canal, calcu
lating on the Council not venturing to defeat a
measure of so much importance to the revenue
as thelatter by resisting the former. The council,
however, rejected the bill ; and thus the canal
remained toll-free for a whole season, because
the two Houses differed about a jury law."
So much for their attempts to subvert the con
stitution. Now let us inquire how far these

138 CANADA,
patriots were disinterested in their enactments.
First, as to grants for local improvements, how
were they applied ? His lordship observes : —
" The great business of the Assemblies is,
literaUy, parish business ; the making parish
roads and parish bridges. There are in none of
these provinces any local bodies possessing autho
rity to impose local assessments, for the manage
ment of local affairs. To do these things is the
business of the Assembly ; and to induce the
Assembly to attend to the particular interests of
each county, is tVie especial business of its county
member. The surplus revenue of the province
is swelled to as large an amount as possible, by
cutting down the payment of public services to
as low a scale as possible ; and the real duties of
government are, sometimes, insufficiently pro
vided for, in order that more may be left to be
divided among the constituent bodies. ' When
we want a bridge, we take a judge to build it,'
was the quaint and forcible way in which a mem
ber of a provincial legislature described the ten-

CANADA. 139
dency to retrench, in the most necessary depart
ments of the public service, in order to satisfy
the demands for local works. This fund is
voted by the Assembly on the motion of its
members ; the necessity of obtaining the previous
consent of the Crown to money votes never
having been adopted by the Colonial Legisla
tures from the practice of the British House of
Commons. There is a perfect scramble among
the whole body to get as much as possible of
this fund for their respective constituents ; cabals
are formed, by which the different members
mutually play into each other's hands ; general
poUtics are made to bear on private business,
and private business on general politics ; and at
the close of the ParUament, the member who
has succeeded in securing the largest portion of
the prize for his constituents, renders an easy
account of his stewardship, with confident assu
rance of his re-election.
" Not only did the leaders of the Lower
Canadian Assembly avail themselves of the

140 CANADA,
patronage thus afforded, by the large surplus
revenue of the province, but they turned this
system to much greater account, by using it to
obtain influence over the constituencies.
" The majority of the Assembly of Lower
Canada is accused by its opponents of having,
in the most systematic and persevering manner,
employed this means of corrupting the electoral
bodies. The adherents of M. Papineau are
said to have been lavish in their promises of the
benefits which they could obtain from the Assem
bly for the county, whose suffrages they solicited.
By such representations, the return of members
of opposition politics is asserted, in many in
stances, to have been secured ; • and obstinate
counties are alleged to have been sometimes
starved into submission, by an entire withdrawal
of grants, until they returned members favour
able to the majority. Some of the English
members who voted with M. Papineau, excused
themselves to their countrymen by aUeging that
they were compelled to do so, in order to get a

CANADA. 141
road or a bridge, which their constituents de
sired. Whether it be true or false, that the
abuse was ever carried to such a pitch, it is
obviously one, which might have been easily
and safely perpetrated by a person possessing
M. Papineau's influence in the Assembly."
Next for the grants for public education.
" But the most bold and extensive attempt
for erecting a system of patronage, wholly inde
pendent of the Govemment, was that which
was, for some time, carried into effect by the
grants for education made by the Assembly, and
regulated by the Act, which the Legislative
Council has been most bitterly reproached with
refusing to renew. It has been stated, as a
proof of the deliberate intention of the Legis
lative Council to crush every attempt to civilize
and elevate the great mass of the people, that it
thus stopped at once the working of about 1,000
schools, and deprived of education no less than
40,000 scholars, who were actuaUy profiting by
the means of instruction thus placed within their

142 CANADA.
reach. But the reasons which induced, or rather
compelled, the Legislative Council to stop this
system, are clearly stated in the Report of that
body, which contains the most unanswerable
justification of the course which it pursued. By
that it appears, that the whole superintendence
and patronage of these schools had, by the ex
pired law, been vested in the hands of the county
members ; and they had been allowed to manage
the funds, without even the semblance of suffi
cient accountabiUty. The Members of the As
sembly had thus a patronage, in this single
department, of about ^25,000 per annum, an
amount equal to half of the whole ordinary
civil expenditure of the Province. They were
not slow in profiting by the occasion thus placed
in their hands; and as there existed in the
Province no sufficient supply of competent
schoolmasters and mistresses, they nevertheless
immediately fiUed up the appointments with
persons who were utterly and obviously in
competent. A great proportion of the teachers

CANADA. 143
eould neither read nor write. The gentleman
whom I directed to inquire into the state of
education in the Province, showed me a petition
from certain schoolmasters, which had come into
his hands ; and the majority of the signatures
were those of marks-men. These ignorant teach
ers could convey no useful instruction to their
pupils ; the utmost amount which they taught
them was to say the Catechism by rote. Even
within seven miles of Montreal, there was a
schoolmistress thus unqualified. These appoint
ments were, as might have been expected, jobbed
by the members among the political partisans ;
nor were the funds very honestly managed. In
many cases the members were suspected, or
accused, of misapplying them to their own use ;
and in the case of Beauhamois, where the seig
neur, Mr. ElUce, has, in the same spirit of
judicious liberality by which his whole manage
ment of that extensive property has been marked,
contributed most largely towards the education
of his tenants, the school funds were proved to

144 CANADA.
have been misappropriated by the county member.
The whole system was a gross political abuse ;
and, however laudable we must hold the exer
tions of those who really laboured to relieve
their country from the reproach of being the
least furnished with the means of education of
any on the North American continent, the more
severely must we condemn those who sacrificed
this noble end, and perverted ample means to
serve the purposes of party,"
We will now claim the support of his lordship
upon another question, which is, how far is it
likely that the law will be duly administered if
the power is to remain in the hands of the French
Canadian population ? Speaking of the Commis
sioners of Small Causes, his lordship observes —
" I shall only add, that some time previous to
my leaving the Province, I was very warmly and
forcibly urged, by the highest legal authorities
in the country, to aboUsh all these tribunals at
once, on the ground that a great many of them,
being composed entirely of disaffected French

CANADA. 145
Canadians, were busily occupied in harassing
loyal subjects, by entertaining actions against
them on account of the part they had taken in
the late insurrection. There is no appeal from
their decision ; and it was stated that they had
in the most barefaced manner given damages
against loyal persons for acts done in the dis
charge of their duty, and judgments by default
against persons who were absent, as volunteers
in the service of the Queen, and enforced their
judgment by levying distresses on their pro
perty." Relative to the greatest prerogative of an
Englishman, the trial by jury, his lordship
observes —
"But the most serious mischief in the ad
ministration of criminal justice, arises from the
entire perversion of the institution of juries, by
the political and national prejudices of the
people. The trial by jury was introduced with
the rest of the English criminal law. For a
long time the composition of both grand and
VOL. III. H

146 CANADA.
petit juries was settled by the governor, and
they were at first taken from the cities, which
were the chefs lieux of the district. Complaints
were made that this gave an undue prepon
derance to the British in those cities ; though,
from the proportions of the population, it is not
very obvious how they could thereby obtain
more than an equal share. In consequence,'
however, of these complaints, an order was
issued under the government of Sir James
Kempt, directing the sheriffs to take the juries.
not only from the cities, but from the adjacent
country, for fifteen leagues in every direction.
An Act was subsequently passed, commonly
called ' Mr. Viger's Jury Act,' extending these
limits to those of the district. The principle
of taking the jury from the whole district to
which the jurisdiction of the court extended, is,
undoubtedly, in conformity with the principles
of English law ; and Mr. Viger's Act, adopting
the other. regulations of the English jury law,
provided a fair selection of juries. But if we

CANADA. 147
consider the hostility and proportions of the two
races, the practical effect of this law was to give
the French an entire preponderance in the
juries. This Act was one of the temporary
Acts of the Assembly, and, having expired in
1836, the Legislative Council refused to renew
it. Since that period, there has been no jury
law whatever. The composition of the juries
has been altogether in the hands of the Govern
ment : private instructions, however, have been
given to the sheriff to act in conformity with
Sir James Kempt's ordinance ; but though he
has aUvays done so, the public have had no
security for any fairness in the selection of the
juries. There was no visible check on the sheriff ;
the public knew that he could pack a jury when
ever he pleased, and supposed, as a matter of
course, that an officer, holding a lucrative ap
pointment at the pleasure of Government,
would be ready to carry into effect those unfair
designs which they were always ready to attri
bute to the Government. When I arrived in
h2

148 CANADA.
the Province, the public were expecting the trials
of the persons accused of participation in the
late insurrection. I was, on the one hand,
informed by the law officers of the Crown, and
the highest judicial authorities, that not the
slightest chance existed, under any fair system of
getting a jury, that would convict any of these
men, however clear the evidence of their guilt
might be ; and, on the other side, I was given
to understand, that the prisoners and their
friends supposed that, as a matter of course, they
would be tried by packed juries, and that even
the most clearly innocent of them would be
convicted. " It is, indeed, a lamentable fact which must
not be concealed, that there does not exist in
the minds of the people of this Province the
slightest confidence in the administration of
criminal justice ; nor were the complaints, or
the apparent grounds for them, confined to one
party. " The trial by jury is, therefore, at the present

CANADA. 149
moment, not only productive in Lower Canada
of no confidence in the honest administration of
the laws, but also provides impunity for every
poUtical offence."
I have made these long quotations from Lord
Durham's Report as his lordship's authority, he
having been sent out as Lord High Com
missioner to the Province, to make the necessary
inquiries, must carry more weight with the
pubUc than any observations of mine. All I
can do is to assert that his lordship is very
accurate ; and, having made this assertion, I ask,
what chance, therefore, is there of good govern
ment, if the power, or any portion of the power,
be left in the hands of those who have in every
way proved themselves so a dverse to good
govemment, and who have wound up such con
duct by open rebellion.
The position of the Executive in Canada has,
for a long while, been just what our position in
this country would be if the House of Commons
were composed of Chartist leaders. Every act

150 CANADA.
brought forward by them would tend to revo
lution, and be an infringement of the Consti
tution, and all that the House of Lords would
have to do, would be firmly to reject every bill
carried to the Upper House. If our House of
Commons were filled with rebels and traitors, the
Government must stand still, and such has been
for these ten years the situation of the Canadian
government ; and, fortunate it is, that the out
break has now put us in a position that will en
able us to retrieve our error, and re-model the
constitution of these Provinces. The questions
which must therefore be settled previous to any
fresh attempts at legislation for these Canadians,
are, — are, or are not, the French population to
have any share in it ? Can they be trusted ? Are
they in any way deserving of it ? In few words,
are the Canadas to be hereafter considered as a
French or an English colony ?
When we legislate, unless we intend to change,
we must look to futurity. The question, then,
is not, who are the majority of to-day, but who

CANADA. 151
will hereafter be the majority in the Canadian
Provinces ; for all agree upon one point, which
is, that we must legislate for the majority. At
present, the population is nearly equal, but
every year increases the preponderance of the
EngUsh ; and it is to be trusted that, by good
management, and the encouragement of emigra
tion, in half a century the French popula
tion will be so swallowed up by the English, as
to be remembered but on record. If, again, we
put the claims of British loyalty against the
treason of the French — the English energy, acti
vity, and capital, in opposition to the supineness,
ignorance, and incapacity of the French popula
tion, — it is evident, that not only in justice and
gratitude, but with a due regard to our own
interests, the French Canadians must now be
wholly deprived of any share of that power which
they have abused, and that confidence of which
they have proved themselves so unworthy. I
am much pleased to find that Lord Durham has
expressed the same opinion, in the following re-

152 CANADA.
marks ; and I trust their importance will excuse
to the reader the length of the quotation.
" The English have already in their hands the
majority of the larger masses of property in the
country ; they have the decided superiority of
intelligence on their side; they have the cer
tainty that colonization must swell their numbers
to a majority ; and they belong to the race which
wields the Imperial Government, and predomi
nates on the American continent. If we now
leave them in a minority, they will never aban
don the assurance of being a. majority here
after, and never cease to continue the present
contest with all the fierceness with which it now
rages. In such a contest, they will rely on the
sympathy of their countrymen at home ; and if
that is denied them, they feel very confident
of being able to awaken the sympathy of their
neighbours of kindred origin. They feel that
if the British Govemment intends to maintain
its hold of the Canadas, it can rely on the
English population alone; that if it abandons

CANADA. 153
its colonial possessions, they must become a
portion of that great Union which wiU speedily
send forth its swarms of settlers, and, by force
of numbers and activity, quickly master every
other race. The French Canadians, on the other
hand, are but the remains of an ancient coloni
zation, and are and ever must be isolated in the
midst of an Anglo-Saxon world. Whatever
may happen, whatever government shall be esta
bUshed over them, British or American, they
can see no hope for their nationality. They can
only sever themselves from the British empire
by waiting till some general cause of dissatis
faction alienates them, together with the sur
rounding colonies, and leaves them part of an
English confederacy ; or, if they are able, by
effecting a separation singly, and so either merg
ing in the American Union, or keeping up for
a few years a wretched semblance of feeble inde
pendence, which would expose them more than
ever to the intrusion of the surrounding popula
tion. I am far from wishing to encourage, in-
h3

154 CANADA,
discriminately, these pretensions to superiority
on the part of any particular race ; but while the
greater part of every portion of the American
continent is still uncleared and unoccupied, and
while the English exhibit such constant and
marked activity in colonization, so long will it
be idle to imagine that there is any portion of
that continent into which that race will not pene
trate, or in which, when it has penetrated, it
will not predominate. It is but a question of
time and mode ; it is but to determine whether
the smaU number of French who now inhabit
Lower Canada shall be made En'glish, under a
government which can protect them, or whether
the process shall be delayed until amuch larger
number shall have to undergo, at the rude hands
of its uncontrolled rivals, the extinction of a
nationality strengthened and embittered by con
tinuance. " And is this French Canadian nationality one
which, for the good merely of that people, we
ought to strive to perpetuate, even if it were

CANADA. 155
possible ? I know of no national distinctions
marking and continuing a more hopeless infe
riority. The language, the laws, the character of
the North American Continent are English ; and
every race but the English (I apply this to all
who speak the English language) appears there
in a condition of inferiority. It is to elevate
them from that inferiority that I desire to give
to the Canadians our English character. I desire
it for the sake of the educated classes, whom the
distinction of language and manners keeps apart
from the great empire to which they belong.
At the best, the fate of the educated and aspir
ing colonist is, at present, one of Uttle hope, and
little activity ; but the French Canadian is cast
still further into the shade, by a language and
habits foreign to those of the Imperial Govern
ment. A spirit of exclusion has closed the higher
professions on the educated classes of the French
Canadians, more, perhaps, than was absolutely
necessary ; but it is impossible for the utmost

166 CANADA.
liberality on the part of the British Government
to give an equal position in the general competi
tion of its vast population to those who speak a
foreign language, I desire the amalgamation
still more for the sake of the humbler classes,
Tbeir present state of rude and equal plenty is
fast deteriorating under the pressure of popula
tion in the narrow limits to which they are con
fined. If they attempt to better their condition,
by extending themselves over the neighbouring
country, they will necessarily get more and more
mingled with an English population; if they
prefer remaining stationary, the greater part of
them must be labourers in the employ of Eng-
lish capitalists. In either case it would appear,
that the great mass of the French Canadians are
doomed, in some measure, to occupy an inferior
position, and to be dependent on the English
for employment. The evils of poverty and depen
dence would merely be aggravated in a ten-fold
degree, by a spirit of jealous and resentful nation-

CANADA. 157
ality, which should separate the working class
of the community from the possessors of wealth
and employers of labour.
" I will not here enter into the question of the
effect of the mode of Ufe and division of property
among the French Canadians, on the happiness
of the people. I will admit, for the moment,
that it is as productive of well-being as its admi
rers assert. But, be it good or bad, the period
in which it is practicable, is past ; for there is
not enough unoccupied land left in that portion
of the country in which English are not already
settled, to admit of the present French popula
tion possessing farms sufficient to supply them
with their present means of comfort, under their
present system of husbandry. No population
has increased by mere births so rapidly as that
of the French Canadians has since the conquest.
At that period their number was estimated at
60,000 : it is now supposed to amount to more
thau seven times as many. There has been no
proportional increase of cultivation, or of pro-

158 CANADA,
duce from the land already under cultivation ;
and the increased population has been in a great
measure provided for by mere continued subdi
vision of estates. In a Report from a Committee
of the Assembly in 18£6, of which Mr. Andrew
Steuart was chairman, it is stated, that since
1784 the population of the seignories had quad
rupled, while the number of cattle had only
doubled, and the quantity of land in cultivation
had only increased one-third. Complaints of
distress are constant, and the deterioration of
the condition of a great part of the population
admitted on aU hands. A people so circumstanced
must alter their mode of life. If they wish to
maintain the same kind of rude, but weU-pro-
vided agricultural existence, it must be by
removing into those parts of the country in
which the English are settled ; or if they cling
to their present residence, they can only obtain
a livelihood by deserting their present employ
ment, and working for wages on farms, or on
commercial occupations under English capitalists.

CANADA. 159
But their present proprietary and inactive con
dition is one which no political arrangements
can perpetuate. Were the French Canadians to
be guarded from the influx of any other popu
lation, their condition in a few years would be
similar to that of the poorest of the Irish pea
santry. " There can hardly be conceived a nationality
more destitute of all that can invigorate and
elevate a people, than that which is exhibited
by the descendants of the French in Lower Ca
nada, owing to their retaining their peculiar
language and manners. They are a people with
no history, and no Uterature. The literature of
England is written in a language which is not
theirs ; and the only literature which their lan
guage renders familiar to them, is that of a na
tion from which they have been separated by
eighty years of a foreign rule, and still more by
those changes which the Revolution and its con
sequences have wrought in the whole political,
moral, and social state of France. ' Yet it is on

160 CANADA,
a people whom recent history, manners, and
modes of thought, so entirely separate from
them, that the French Canadians are wholly
dependent for almost all the instruction and
amusement derived from books : it is on this
essentially foreign Uterature, which is conversant
about events, opinions and habits of life, per
fectly strange and unintelligible to them, that
they are compelled to be dependent. Their
newspapers are mostly written by natives of
France, who have either come to try their for
tunes in the province, or been brought into it
by the party leaders, in order to supply the
dearth of literary talent available for the poli
tical press. In the same way their nationaUty
operates to deprive them of the enjoyments and
civilizing influence of the arts. Though de
scended from the people in the world that most
generally love, and have most successfuUy culti
vated the drama — though living on a continent,
in which almost every town, great or small, has
an English theatre, the French population of

CANADA. 161
Lower Canada, cut off from every people that
speak ita own language, can support no national
stage, " In these circumstances, I should be indeed
surprisedif the more reflecting part of the French
Canadians entertained at present any hope of
continuing to preserve their nationality. Much
as they struggle against it, it is obvious that the
process of assimilation to English habits is al
ready commencing. The English language is
gaining ground, as the language of the rich and
of the employers of labour naturaUy will. It
appeared by some of the few returns, which had
been received by the Commissioner of Inquiry
into the state of education, that there are about
ten times the number of French children in
Quebec learning English, as compared with the
English children who leam French. A consi
derable time must, of course, elapse before the
change of a language can spread over a whole
people ; and justice and policy alike require.

162 CANADA.
that while the people continue to use the French
language, their government should take no such
means to force the English language upon them
as would, in fact, deprive the great mass of the
community of the protection of the laws. But,
I repeat, that the alteration of the character of
the province ought to be immediately entered
on, and firmly, though cautiously, followed up ;
that in any plan, which may be adopted for the
future management of Lower Canada, the first
object ought to be that of making it an English
province ; and that, with this end in view, the
ascendancy should never again be placed in any
hands but those of an EngUsh population.
Indeed, at the present moment, this is obviously
necessary : in the state of mind in which I have
described the French Canadian population, as
not only now being, but as likely for a long
while to remain, the trusting them with an entire
control over this province would be, in fact, only
facilitating a rebeUion. Lower Canada must be

CANADA. 163
governed now, as it must be hereafter, by an
EngUsh population ; and thus the policy, which
the necessities of the moment force on us, is in
accordance with that suggested by a comprehen
sive view of the future and permanent improve
ment of the province."

164

CHAPTER VI.
I HAVE quoted largely from Lord Durham's
Report, as in most points relative to Lower
Canada, especially as to the causes which pro
duced the rebelUon, the unwarrantable conduct
of the Legislative Assembly, and his opinions as
to the character of the French Canadians, I con
sider that the remarks are correct : they are cor
roborated by my own opinions and observations :
but I think that the information he has received
relative to Upper Canada is not only very im
perfect, but certainly derived from parties who
were not to be trusted : take one simple instance.
His lordship says in his Report, that the
petitioners in favour of Mathews and Lount,
who were executed, amounted to 30,000, whereas
it is established, that the whole number of sig-

CANADA. 165
natures only amounted to 4,574. Those who de
ceive his lordship in one point would deceive him
in another ; indeed his lordship had a task of
peculiar difficulty, going out as he did, vested
with such powers, and the intents of his mission
being so well known. It is not those who are in
high office that are likely to ascertain the truth,
which is much more likely to be communicated
to a humble individual like myself, who travels
through a country and hears what is said on
both sides. The causes stated by his lordship
for discontent in Upper Canada are not correct.
I have before said, and I repeat it, that they
may almost be reduced to the following : the
check put upon their enterprize and industry
by the a<:ts of the Lower Canadian Assembly ;
and the favour shewn to the French by the
Colonial Office, aided by the machinations of
the American party, who fomented any appear
ance of discontent.
There is in his lordship's Report, an apparent
leaning towards the United States, and its in-

166 CANADA.
stitutions, at which 1 confess that I am surprised.
Why his lordship, after shewing that the repre
sentative government did all they possibly could
to overthrow the constitution, should propose an
increase of power to that representative govern
ment, unless, indeed, he would estabUsh a demo
cracy in the provinces, I am at a loss to imagine.
That a representative body similar to that
which attempted to overturn the constitution in
Lower Canada can work well, and even usefully
reform when in the hands of loyal EngUsh sub
jects, is acknowledged by his lordship, who says,
"the course of the Parliamentary contest in Upper
Canada has not been marked by that singular
neglect of the great duties of a legislative body,
which I have remarked in the proceedings of
the Parliament of Lower Canada. The statute
book of the Upper Province abounds with useful
and well-constructed measures of reform, and
presents an honourable contrast to that of the
Lower Province,"
Indeed, unless I have misunderstood his lord-

CANADA. 167
ship he appears to be inconsistent, for in one por
tion he claims the extension of the power of the
representative, and in another he complains of
the want of vigorous administration of the royal
prerogative, for he says : —
" The defective system of administration in
Lower Canada, commences at the very source
of power ; and the efficiency of the public ser
vice is impaired throughout by the entire want
in the colony of any vigorous administration of
the prerogative of the crown."
To increase the power of the representative is
to increase the power of the people, in fact to
make them the source of power ; and yet his
lordship in this sentence acknowledges that the
crown is the source of power, and that a more
vigorous administration of its prerogative is re
quired. There are other points commented upon in his
lordship's Report, which claim earnest considera
tion : one is, that of the propriety of municipal
institutions. Local improvements, when left in

168 CANADA.
the hands of representative assemblies, are seldom
judicious or impartial, and should therefore be
made over either to the inhabitants or executive.
The system of townships has certainly been one
great cause of the prosperity of the United States,
each township taxing itself for its own improve
ment. Although the great roads extending
through the whole of the Union are in the hands of
the Federal Govemment, and the States Govem
ment take up the improvement on an extensive
scale in the States themselves, the townships,
knowing exactly what they require, tax them
selves for their minor advantages. The system in
England is much the same, although perhaps not
so weU regulated as in America. Are not, how
ever, municipal institutions valuable in another
point of view ? Do they not prepare the people
for legislating ? are they not the rudiments of
legislation by which a free people learn to tax
themselves ? And indeed, it may also be asked,
would not the petty influence and authority
confided to those who are ambitious by their

CANADA. 169
townsmen satisfy their ambition, and prevent
them from becoming demagogues and disturbing
the country ?
Whatever may be the future arrangements
for ruling these provinces, it appears to me that
there are two great evils in the present system ;
one is, that the governors of the provinces have
not sufficient discretionary power, and the other,
that they are so often removed. The evils aris
ing from the first cause have been pointed out
in Lord Durham's Report: —
" The complete and unavoidable ignorance
in which the British public, and even the great
body of its legislators, are with respect to the
real interests of distant communities, so entirely
different from their own, produces a general in
difference, which nothing but some great colo
nial crisis ever dispels ; and responsibility to
ParUament, or to the public opinion of Great
Britain, would, except on these great and rare
occasions, be positively mischievous, if it were
not impossible. The repeated changes caused
VOL. III. I

170 CANADA.
by political events at home having no connexion
with colonial affairs, have left, to most of the
various representatives of the Colonial Depart
ment in ParUament, too little time to acquire
even an elementary knowledge of the condition
of those numerous and heterogeneous communi
ties for which they have had both to administer
and legislate. The persons ¦with whom the real
management of these affairs has or ought to
have rested, have been the permanent but utterly
irresponsible members of the office. Thus the
real government of the colony has been entirely
dissevered from the sUght nominal responsibiUty
which exists. Apart even from this great and
primary evil of the system, the presence of mul
tifarious business thus thrown on the Colonial
Office, and the repeated changes of its ostensible
directors, have produced disorders in the ma
nagement of pubUc business which have occa
sioned serious mischief, and very great irritation.
This is not my own opinion merely ; for I do
but repeat that of a select committee of the

CANADA. 171
House of Assembly in Upper Canada, who, in
a Report dated February 8, 1838, say, ' It
appears to your committee, that one of the chief
causes of dissatisfaction with the administration
of colonial affairs arises from the frequent
changes in the office of secretary of state, to
whom the Colonial department is intrusted.
Since the time the late Lord Bathurst retired
from that charge, in 1827, your committee be-
, lieve there has not been less than eight colonial
ministers, and that the poUcy of each successive
statesman has been more or less marked by a
difference from that of his predecessor. This
frequency of change in itself almost necessarily
entails two evils ; first, an imperfect knowledge
of the affairs of the colonies on the part of the
chief secretary, and the consequent necessity
of submitting important details to the subordi
nate officers of the department ; and, second,
the want of stabiUty and firmness in the general
policy of the Govemment, and which, of course,
creates much uneasiness on the part of the Go-
i2

172 CANADA.
vernors, and other officers of the colonies, as to
what measures may be approved.
" ' But undoubtedly (continues the Report)
by far the greatest objection tothe system is the
impossibility it occasions of any colonial minis
ter, unaided by persons possessing local know
ledge, becoming acquainted with the wants,
wishes, feeUngs, and prejudices of the inhabi
tants of the colonies, during his temporary con
tinuance in office, and of deciding satisfactorily
upon the conflicting statements and claims that
are brought before him. A firm, unflinching
resolution to adhere to the principles of the con
stitution, and to maintain the just and necessary
powers of the crown, would do much towards
supplying the want of local information. But
it would be performing more than can be rea
sonably expected from human sagacity, if any
man, or set of men, should always decide in an
unexceptionable manner on subjects that have
their origin thousands of miles from the seat of
the Imperial Government, where they reside.

CANADA. 173
and of which they have no personal knowledge
whatever; and therefore wrong may be often
done to individuals, or a false view taken of
some important political question, that in the
end may throw a whole community into diffi
culty and dissension, not from the absence of the
most anxious desire to do right, but from an
imperfect knowledge of facts upon which to
form an opinion.' "
This is all very true. There is nothing so diffi
cult as to legislate for a colony from home. The
very best theory is useless ; it requires that you
should be on the spot, and adapt your measures
to the circumstances and the growing wants of
the country. I may add that it is wrong for the
Home Government to consider the government
given to the colony as permanent. All that the
mother-country can do is to give it one which,
in theory, appears best adapted to secure the
true freedom and happiness of the people;
but leaving that form of government to be
occasionally modified, so as to meet the

174 CANADA.
changes which tbe colony may require, and to
conform with its wants and its rising interests :
all of which being unforeseen could not be pro
vided for by the prescience of man. The
governor, therefore, of a colony should be in
vested with more discretionary power.
The constant removal of the governor from
the colony is also much to be deprecated. On
his first arrival, he can only have formed theo
retical views, which, in all probability, he will
have to discard in a few months. He finds him
self surrounded by people in office, interested in
their own peculiar poUcy, and ¦viewing things
through their ownmedium. Inall colonies you will
usually find an oUgarchy, cemented by mutual
interest and family connection, and so bound up
together as to become formidable if opposed to
the Government. Into the hands of these people
a govemor must, to a certain degree, fall ; and
must remain in them until he has had time to
see clearly and to judge for himself. But by the
time that he has just disenthralled himself, he is

CANADA. 175
removed, and another appointed in his place,
and the work has to commence de novo.
Lord Durham has proposed that the Canadas
should be united, and there certainly are some
benefits which would arise could their union take
place. He asserts most positively that the French
party must be annihilated. He says : — " It
must henceforth be the first and steady purpose
of the British Government to establish an Eng
lish population, with , English laws and lan
guage in this province, and to trust its-govern
ment to none but a decidedly English legisla
ture." This is plain and clear ; but how is it
to be effected .'' The land of Lower Canada is
still in the hands of the French, and nearly five
hundred thousand out of six hundred thousand
of the population are French.
How, then, are we to make the Lower
Canadas English ? We may buy up the seig
neuries ; we may insist upon the English lan
guage being used in the Assembly and courts
of law, in pubUc documents, &c. ; we may alter

176 CANADA.
the laws to correspond with those of the mother-
country; but will that make "the province
EngUsh ? We may even insist that none but
EngUsh-bom subjects, or Canadian-born Eng
lish, shall be elected to the House of Assembly,
or hold any public office ; but will that make the
province English ? Certainly not. There is
no want of English-born demagogues, as well as
French, in the province. The elections of the
Lower province are decided by the Canadian
French, who are in the majority, and they would
find no difficulty in obtaining representatives
who would continue the former system of con
trolling the executive and advocating rebel
lion. Is it, then, by altogether taking away
from the Canadian French the elective fran
chise and giving it entirely into the hands of
the EngUsh, that the province is to be made
EngUsh ? If so, although I admit the French
have proved themselves undeserving, and have
by their rebelUon forfeited their birth-right, you
then place them in the situation of an injured.

CANADA. 177
oppressed, and sacrificed people ; reducing them
to a state of slavery which, notwithstanding their
offences, would still be odious to the present age.
By what means, therefore, does his lordship
intend that the province shall become English
— by immigration .'' That requires time ; and
before the immigration necessary can take place
the Canadas may be again thrown into a rebel
lion by the French machinations. In our fu
ture legislation for the Canadas, we must always
bear in mind that the French population will be
opposed to the Government and to the mother-
country ; and that there is no chance of a better
state of feeUng in the Lower province until they
shall become amalgamated and swallowed up by
British immigration. Until that takes place, the
union of the Canadas wiU only create a conflict
between the two races, as opposed to each other as
fire and water, and nearly equal in numbers. It
wUl be an immense cauldron, bubbling, steaming,
and boiling over — an incessant scene of strife and
irritation — a source of anxiety and expense to
i3

178 CANADA,
the mother-country, and, so far from going
a-head, I should not be surprised if, in twenty
years hence, the English population should be
found to be smaller than it now is. Political
dissensions would paralysc'enterprize, frighten
away capital, and, in all probabUity, involve us
in a conflict with the United States. Until,
therefore, I understand how the Lower Province
is to become British, I cannot think a union
between the Canadas advisable.
Whether his lordship is aware of it or not,
I cannot say ; but there appears to me to
be a strong inclination to democracy in all
his proposed plans, and an evident leaning
towards the institutions of the United States.
He wishes to make the Executive Govern
ment responsible to the people; he would
make one Federal Union of all our provinces,
and institute the Supreme Court of Appeal
which they have in the United States. In short,
change but the word governor for president,
and we should have the American constitution,

CANADA, 179
and a " free and enlightened people ;" — that is
to say, the French Canadians, who can neither
read nor write, governing themselves.
"So far from a Federal union between all our
transatlantic possessions being advisable, I should
think, from their contiguity with the Americans,
that it would be advisable to keep them separate.
lam of the same opinion respecting the Canadas.
I consider that, even as two provinces, they are
too vast in territory already. Whether it be a
woman looking after her servants and household
affairs, or a captain commanding a ship, or a
govemor ruling over a province, large or small
as may be the scale of operation, one of the
most important points in good legislation,
is the eye, A governor of a vast province
cannot possibly be aware of the wants of the
various portions of the province. He is obliged
to take the reports of others, and consequently
very often legislates unadvisedly.
That the two provinces cannot remain in
their present state is acknowledged by all. The

180 CANADA.
question therefore is, can we rationally expect
any improvement from their union .'' Perhaps it
may appear presumptuous in me to venture to
differ from LordDurham, who is a statesman born
and bred — for this is not a party question in which
a difference of politics may bias one : it is a ques
tion as to the well-governing of a most important
colony,and noonewill for a momentdoubt thathis
lordship is as anxious as the Duke of Welling
ton, and every other well-wisher to his country,
to decide upon that which he considers honestly
and honourably to be the best. It is really, there
fore, with great deference that I submit to him,
whether another arrangement should not be
well considered, before the union of the two
provinces is finally decided upon.
His lordship has very truly observed, that in
legislating, we are to legislate for futurity ; if
not, we must be prepared for change. Acting
upon this sound principle, we are to legislate
upon the supposition that the whole country of
Upper and Lower Canada is well peopled. We

CANADA, • ]81
are not to legislate for the present population,
but for the future. And how is this to be done
in the present condition of the provinces ? Most
assuredly by legislating for territory — for the
amount of square acres which will eventually be
filled up by emigration. I perfectly agree with
his lordship in the remark that " if the Cana
dians are to be deprived of their representative
government, it would be better to do it in a
straightforward way ; " but I submit that it
would be done in a straightforward way by the
plan I am about to submit to him, and I consi
der it more advisable than that of convulsing
the two provinces by bringing together two
races so inveterate against each other. Instead
of a union of the two provinces, I should think
it more advisable to separate the Canadas into
three : Upper, Lower, and Middle Canada, — the
line of demarcation, and the capitals of each Pro
vince appearing already to be marked out. The
Lower province would have Quebec, and be sepa
rated from the Middle province by the Ottawa

182 CANADA.
river. The Middle province would have Mon
treal, and would extend to a Une drawn from
Lake Sinicoe to Lake Ontario, throwing into it
all the toinnsMpson the American side of the St,
Lawrence, which would do away with the great
objection of the Upper province being dependent
upon the Lower for the transport of goods up
the river, and the necessity of dividing between
the provinces the custom-house revenues. Under
any circumstances, it would be very advantageous
to have aport of entry and a custom-house, in or
nearer to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as ships
would then be able to make an extra voyage
every year. I should say that about Gaspe would
be the spot. This bay being on the American
side of the river St, Lawrence would become the
entry port for the Upper and Middle provinces,
rendering them wholly independent of the Lower.
The Upper province would comprehend all the
rest of the territory west of the line, drawn from
Lake Superior, and have Toronto fof its capital.
This would be a pretty fair division of territory.

CANADA. 183
and each province would be more than sufficient
for the eye of the most active governor. Let
each province have its separate swfi-governor '
and House of Assembly ; but let the Upper
House, or Senate, be selected of equal num
bers from each province, and assemble at
Quebec, to decide, with the Governor-in-chief
of the provi'nces, upon the passing or reject
ing of the bills of the three respective Lower
Houses. This, although perfectly fair, would
at once give in the Senate the preponderance to
the English of the Upper and Middle provinces.
It would still leave to the Lower Canadians
their franchise ; and their House of Assembly
would be a species of safety-valve for the dema
gogues to give vent to their opinions, (without
their being capable of injuring the interests of
the provinces,) until they gradually amalgamated
with the British immigration. I merely offer
this plan as a suggestion to his lordship, and,
of course, enter into no further detail.
There are, however, one or two other points

184 CANADA,
which appear to me to be worthy of consderation.
If the Canadas are* of that importance which
I think them, there are no means which we
should not use to attach them to the mother-
country — to make them partial to monarchical
institutions — and to identify them with the
British empire. We should make sacrifi
ces for them that we would not for other co
lonies ; and therefore it is that I venture my
opinion, that it would not only be politic,
but jiist, to such an extensive territory — and
what will eventuaUy be, such an extensive popu
lation — to permit each of the three provinces,
(provided they are ever divided into three,) to
select one of their senate to represent them in
the British House of Commons. I consider
it but an act of justice as well as of poUcy,
This step would, as I said before, identify these
valuable provinces with ourselves. They then
would feel that they were not merely ruled by,
butthat they were part and portion of, and assisted
in, the government of the British empire. And to

CANADA. 185
draw the line as strictly as possible between them
and their democratic neighbours, and to attach
them still closer to monarchical institutions,
it should be proposed to the Sovereign of these
realms that an Order of knighthood and an Order
of merit expressly Canadian should be instituted.
These last may be considered by many to be, and
perhaps in themselves are, trifles ; but they are
no trifles when you consider that they must mi-
Utate against those democratic feelings of equaUty
which have been so industriously and so inju
riously circulated in the provinces by our trans
atlantic descendants. I cannot better conclude
these observations than by quoting the opinion
of so intelligent a nobleman as Lord Durham,
who asserts most positively that " England, if
she loses her North American colonies, must
sink into a second-rate power."

186

CHAPTER VII.
INDIANS.
There was no subject of higher interest to
me during my travels in North America, than
the past and present condition of the Indian
tribes. Were I to enter into the history of the
past, I could easily fill three or four volumes
¦with matter which I think would be found very
well worth perusing. It is to be lamented
that there has been no correct history of the
Indian tribes yet published. There are many
authors in America well calculated to undertake
the task ; and the only reason which I can give
for its not having been already done, is that, pro
bably, the American Government are not very
willing to open the archives of the Indian depart
ment even to their own countrymen ; and, at the
same that time, an American author, who would

INDIANS, 187
adhere to the truth, would not become very
popular by exposing the system of rapine and
injustice which was commenced by the English
who first landed, and has been continued up to
the present day by the Federal Government of
the United States. Nevertheless, it is to be
lamented, now that the race is so fast disap
pearing, that a good historical account of them
is not published. There is no want of mate
rial for the purpose, even if the Government
refuse their aid; but at present, it is either
scattered in various works, or when attempted
to be collected together, the author has not been
qual to the task.
There is a question which has been raised by
almost every traveller in America, and that
is — from whom are theAmerican Indians de
scended ? and I think, from the many works I
have consulted, that the general opinion is,
that they are descended from the lost tribes of
Israel. We have never discovered any other

188 INDIANS.
nation of savages, if we may apply such a term to
the American Indians, who have not been idola-
tors ; the American Indian is the only one who
worships the one living God. In a discourse,
which was delivered by Mr. Noah, one of the
most intelligent of the Jewish nation that I ever
had the pleasure of being acquainted with, there
is much deep research, and a collection of the
various opinions upon this subject. To quote
from it would not do it justice, and I have
therefore preferred, as it is not long, giving the
whole of it in the Appendix, as it is not (though
should be more) generaUy known. In the second
volume I have given a map of North America,
in which I have laid down, as correctly as I can,
and sufficiently so for the purpose, the supposed
locations of the various tribes, at the period that
the White man first put his foot on shore in
America. I have said " as correctly as I can," for
it would be as difficult to trace the outer edges of
a shifting sand-bank under water, as to lay down

INDIANS. 189
the exact portion of territory occupied by tribes
who were continually at war, and who advanced
or retreated according as they were victorious or
vanquished. Indeed, many tribes were totally
annihilated, or their remnants incorporated into
others, Uving far away from their original terri
tories : the Tuscororas, for instance, were driven
out of Carolina and admitted into the Mohawk
confederacy, which originally came down from the
upper shores of the river St. Lawrence. The
Winnebagoes, also, were driven from the south
and settled on the river Wisconsin. The Sacs
and Foxes fought their way from the river St.
Lawrence to the Fox river, in Wisconsin, and
were driven from thence, by the Menomonies
and Chippewas, to the territory of Rock river,
on the river Mississippi, where they remained,
until deprived of their territory by the Federal
Government, and sent away to the west of
the river. I make these observations that the
map may not be cavilled at by some hyper-
critic, who has thought that he has discovered

190 INDIANS.
a mare's nest ; it is as accurate as I can make it,
and I profess to do no more.
Notwithstanding the vicissitudes which con
tinually occurred, the tribes of North American
Indians may be classed as follows : —
The Algonquin stock of the North — under
which are comprehended the Chippewas, Otta-
was, Menomonies, Hurons, &c.
The Southern tribes, who are also descended
from one stock, and comprise Creeks, Cherokees,
Choctaws, Catawbaws, Chickasaws, &c.
The Horse Indians of the West, as the Paw
nees, Osages, Sioux, Kansas, Cumanches, &c.
The Indians of the Rocky Mountains, as
Crows, Snakes, and Blackfeet.
All the above races were composed of nume
rous tribes, who acknowledged themselves as
blood relations, but did not enter into any con
federacy for mutual support ; on the contrary,
often warred they with each other. There were
other powerful tribes, which resided between the
lakes and the Ohio, bordering on the hunting

INDIANS. 191
grounds of Kentucky and Tenessee, which por
tion appeared to be set aside, by general consent,
not only for hunting but for war. There were
Delawares, or Lenni-Lenape, the Shawnees,
Wyandots, Illinois, Peoria, and some others.
The confederate tribes, and with which the
early settlers had to contend, were as follows : —
The Powhatan confederacy, comprising the
Monacans, Monahoacs, and Powhatans, occu
pying the present state of Virginia from the sea
coast to the Alleghany mountains.
The New England confederacy, who resided
in the present States of New England, composed
of the Pequots, Narangassets, Pawtuckets, Poka-
nokets, and Massachusetts tribes.
And lastly, the confederacy of the five nations,
or Mohawks, called Mingos by the other In
dians, and Iroquois by the French. This con
federacy was composed of the Mohawks, One
idas, Caguyas, Onandagas, and Senecas. The
Tuscaroras were afterwards admitted as a sixth.
I will make a few brief observations upon the

192 INDIANS.
Various tribes, in the order I have set them
down. The Algonquin stock has suffered less than any
other, simply because they have been located so
far north, and their lands have not been required.
The Chippewas are at present the most nume
rous tribe of Indians. The most celebrated
chief of this stock was Pontiac, an Ottawa.
After the Canadas were given up to the English,
he proved a most formidable enemy ; he at
tempted and, to a certain degree, succeeded in
uniting the tribes against us, and had not his
plot been discovered, would, in all probability,
have wrested from us Detroit, and every other
post in our possession on the lakes. But Pon
tiac could not keep up a standing army, which
was so contrary to the habits of the Indians ;
one by one the tribes deserted him, and sued for
peace. Pontiac would not listen to any nego-
ciations : he retired to Illinois, and was murdered
by a Peoria Indian. The Ottawas, Chippewas,
and Pottawataniies, who fought under him.

INDIANS. 193
avenged his death by the extermination of
nearly the whole tribe of Peorias. Pontiac was
one of the greatest Indians in history.
Of the Southern tribes there are not any re
cords sufficiently prominent for so short a notice.
The Horse Indians of the West and those of
the Rocky Mountains are scarcely known.
The Midland tribes produced some great
men. The Delawares were at one period the
most celebrated. The Shawanees, or Shawnees,
do not appear to have been opposed to the
Whites, until Boone and his adventurers crossed
the AUeghanies, and took possession of the
valley of Kentucky. But the Shawnees have to
boast of Tecumseh, a chief, as great in renown
as Pontiac ; he also attempted to confederate
aU the tribes and drive away the Whites ; his
history is highly interesting. He fell in battle
fighting for the English, in the war of 1814.
The confederate tribes on the eastern coast,
were those with which the first settlers were
embroiled. The history of Virginia is remark-
VOL. III. K

1J4 INDIANS.
able for one of the most singular romances in real
life which ever occurred : I allude to Pocahontas,
the daughter of the king of the Powhatans, who
saved the life of the enterprizing Captain Smith,
at the imminent risk of her own. The romance
was not, however, wound up by their marriage^
Captain Smith not being a marrying man ; but
she afterwards married a young Englishman, of
the name of Randolph, .vas brought to England,
received at court, and paid much attention to by
Queen Anne. Some of the first families in
Virginia proudly and justly claim their descent
from this noble girl.
The New England Confederacy was opposed
to the pilgrim fathers and their descendants.
The chief tribe, the Wampanoags, have to boast
of the third great chief among the Indian tribes
— King Philip. His history is well known ;
I have already referred to it in my Diary.
If the reader will consult the histories of
Philip, Pontiac and Tecumseh, who may fairly be
said to have been " great men," he will perceive

INDIANS. 195
that in each case, these chiefs were the life and
soul of enterprize and action, and that it was by
, their talents, bravery, and activity, that the tribes
were confederated and led against theWhites. As
soon as they were gone, there were none who could
succeed them or fill up their places, and the con
federacies were immediately broken up. But this
was not the case with the celebrated five nations,
or Mohawks, who, Uke the Romans of former
days, spread their conquests until their name was
a terror wherever it was mentioned. PhUip,
Pontiac and Tecumseh were great men, but the
Mohawks' confederacy was a nation of great
men. When the French settled in Canada in
1603, the Mohawks, or Iroquois as they called
them, were living near to where Montreal now
stands. They were at war with the Adiron
dacks, a very numerous and powerful nation, and
were beaten down towards the Lakes ; but they
recovered themselves, and their opponents were in
their turn beaten down to Quebec. The war
between the Adirondacks and the Iroquois is
K 2

196 INDIANS.
full of the most interesting details of courage on
both sides. The Iroquois having subdued, and,
indeed, exterminated the Adirondacks, turned
their arms against several other tribes, whom
they vanquished ; they then attacked the Otta
was and Hurons, and drove them to the other side
of the Mississippi. The Illinois were next sub
dued, then the Miamies and Shawnees were driven
back for the time. Finally, they conquered the
Virginian tribes, and warred against the Chero
kees, Catawbas, and other nations of the South.
Although it was impossible for them to hold
the vast extent of country which they had over
run, still it is certain that their very name was
so terrible that, from New England to the Mis
sissippi, every town and village would be deserted
at their approach.
The chief portion of the Mohawks, under their
celebrated leader Brandt, served on the British
side in the war of Independence, and at the close
of the war, they settled in lands given them by
the EngUsh, on the banks of Grand river in

INDIANS. 197
Canada in the year 1783. At the time they took
possession of their land, their numbers amounted
to nearly 8,000 ; but, as is every where the case
where the Indians are settled and confined on
reserved lands, they have now decreased to about
2,500. A portion of the tribe of Senecas, one
of the Mohawk confederacy, joined the Ameri
cans ; the remnants of them are still located a few
miles from Buffalo, in the State of New York.
Their chief. Red-jacket, died lately ; he was a.
great warrior and still greater orator.
The most formidable opponents to the five
nations were the Delawares, or Lenni Lenape,
who lived in Pennsylvania. TheDelawares joined
the British in the war of Independence.
In the succeeding chapter, I shall give the
reader a census of the American Indian tribes
which still remain. It will be perceived that
they are chiefly comprised of tribes which inha
bited the Far-West, and were until lately, almost
unknown. Of the New England and Virginian
confederacies, once so powerful, not a vestige

198 INDIANS.
remains; of the Delawares, 826 still exist west
of the Missisippi ; of the Shawanees, or Shaw
nees, once so terrible on the banks of the Ohio,
1,272. In fact, all those Indians whose territory
bounded the coast first taken possession of by the
White men, have been annihilated. I have often
heard it argued, when I was in the United States,
that the Indians could not be considered as having
any ¦claim to the land, as they did not settle or
cultivate it, and it is a general opinion that they
lived almost entirely by the proceeds of the chase:
but this is not a fact; indeed it is disproved bythe
early settlers themselves, who acknowledge that
if they had not been supplied with corn by the
Indians they must have starved. That the
Indians did not grow more than was sufficient
for their own consumption is very probable, but
that they did cultivate the land is most certain ;
indeed, when the coun try and soil were favourable,
they appear to have cultivated to a great extent.
When General Wayne destroyed the settlements
of the Miamies and Wyandots, on the Miami

INDIANS. 199
river, in 1794, he says in his despatch, " never
have 1 beheld such immense fields of corn in any
part of America as possessed by these Indians."
The chase was considered by the Indians as a
preparatory school for warriors, and was fol
lowed accordingly ; indeed, a hunting party and
a war party were often one and the same thing,
as the hunting grounds were common, and when
tribes who were at variance feU in with each
other, a conflict invariably ensued. My limits
will not permit me to enter into the subject more
fully ; my object has been, in as few pages as
possible, to assist the map in giving the reader
some idea of the location of the Aborigines of
America. If he would know more of this in
teresting people, there are many very excellent
works concerning them written by Americans,
which, were they collected together, would form
a most valuable and important history

200

CHAPTER VIII.

INDIANS.

I wiLLnow enter into a short examination of the
present position of the remaining Indian tribes.
The plan of the American Government has been
to compel them to sell their lands and remove west
of the Mississippi, to lands of which I doubt that
the Americans have any right to claim an acre.
That the removal of them is expedient I grant, and
that is all that can be said on the subject. That
the Indians were fated to melt away before the
white men, like snow before the sun, is true ; still,
it is painful to consider what has taken place from
the period of our first landing, when we were re
ceived hospitably — saved from starvation by the
generous sacrifice of their small stores of grain —
permitted to settle upon a small tract of land

INDIANS. 201
humbly solicited — and that from the time that the
white men once gained a footing on their shores,
the Indians have been hunted Uke wild beasts
from hill to hill, from river to river, and from
country to country, until nearly the whole of the
vast continent may be said to have been wrested
from them. This system is still continued, one
tribe being forced back westward upon another,
till they come into conflict with, and destroy, each
other ; but the buffalo and other animals, upon
which they depend for food, recede with them and
gradually disappear. As Christians, we must
lament that the track for the advance of Chris
tianity is cleared away by a series of rapine,
cruelty, and injustice, at which every one must
shudder. The following is the Report to the American
Government, of the various tribes of Indians
remaining in the year 1837. It is divided into
three parts.

K y

202 INDIANS,
Statement showing the number of Indians now east of
the Mississippi ; of those that have emigrated from
the east to the west of that river ; and those within
striking distance of the 'Western frontier.
1. — Name and number of the tribes now east of the
Mississippi.
1.— Under treaty stipulations to remove west of the
Mississippi.
Winnehagoes  4,500
Ottawas of Ohio  100
Pottawatamies of Indiana  2,950
Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottawata
mies  1,500
Cherokees  14,000
Creeks  1,000
Chickasaws  1,000
Seminoles  5,000
Appalachicolas  400
Ottawas and Chippewas in the Penin
sula of Michigan  6,500
 36,950
2.— Not under treaty stipulations to remove.
New Yoik Indians  4,176
Wyandots  575
Miamies  1,100
Menomonies  4,000
Ottawas and Chippewas of the lakes 2,564
 12,415
49,365

INDIANS, 203
2.— Number of Indians who have emigrated from the
east to the toestofthe Mississippi,
Chickasaws  549
Chippewas, Ottawas, aad Pottawatamies  2,191
Choctaws  15,000
Quapaws  476
Creeks  20,43?
Seminoles  407
Appalachicolas  265
Cherokees  7,9H
Kickapoos  588
Delawares  ,  826
Shawnees  1,272
Ottawas  374
Weas  22i
Piankeshaws  ,  162
Peorias and Kaskaskias  132
Pottawatamies of Indiana  53
Senecas  251
Senecas and Shawnees  211

Total  51,327

204 INDIANS.
3. — Number of the Indigenous Tribes within striki'ng
distance of the T-Festern frontier.
Sioux  21,600
lowas  1,500
Sacs  4,800
Foxes  1,600
Sacs of the Missouri  500
Osages  5,120
Kansas  ] ,606
Omahas  1,600
Ottoes and Missourias  1,000
Pawnees  12,500
Camanches  19,200
Kioways  1,800
Mandans  .3,200
Quapaws  450
Minatarees , ,  2,000
Pagans...  30,000
Assinaboins  <  15,000
Appaches  20,280
Crees  •  3,000
Arrepahas  3,000
Gros- Ventres  16,800
Eutaws  19,200
Crows  7,200
Caddoes  2,000
Poncas  900
Arickarees  2,750
Cheyennes  3,200
Blackfeet  30,000

Total  231,806

INDIANS. -205
Rkoapitulation.
Number of Indians now east of the Mississippi 49,365
Number of Indians who have emigrated from
east to west side  51,327
Number of indigenous tribes  231,806
Aggregate  332,498
Estimated number of warriors.
Whole number of Indians  332,498
Assuming that every fifth one may be consi
dered a warrior (and this is believed to be a
reasonable supposition), the number of war
riors will be  06,499
War Department,
Office of Indian Affairs, November 22, 1837.
C. A.H.4IIRIS, Commissioner.
This force of the Indians, if ever they com
bined, would be very formidable, and they might
certainly sweep away the whole white population
west of the Mississippi. That there will hereaf
ter be an attempt of that kind is very probable, as
hunger must.eventually drive them to it; but any
success in their attempt must depend very much
upon their leaders, and the possibility of combi-

206 INDIANS.
nation. It certainly appears to have been an
oversight on the part of the American Govern
ment, to concentrate the whole of the Indians
upon their frontiers in the way which they have
done ; still they could not well have acted other
wise. The removal of ihe Cherokees has been
the most hazardous part of their proceeding,
as they are very superior people ; and should
the other tribes put themselves under their di
rections, they would be formidable enemies.
There is another circumstance which may ren
der the Indians more serious enemies, which is,
that they, having been located on the prairie
country, have become Horse Indians, instead of
what is termed Wood Indians, and they have a
vast country behind them to retreat to in case of
necessity. I do not think, however, that there
is, at present, much fear to be felt relative to
the Indians, although the Cherokees, the Sioux,
and some other powerful tribes openly declare
their hostile intentions as soon as an oppor
tunity offers for carrying them into execu-

INDIANS. 207
tion. That opportunity will not oflcr unless
America is plunged into war with France or
this country, and then I am pretty confident
that there wiU be a general rising of the In
dians ; when, whether they act in concert or not,
they wiU give the Americans more occupation
than will be agreeable. The American Govern
ment have not been insensible to the danger to
which they are exposed from this quarter, and,
in 1837, the reports of military men were sent
into Congress as to the best plan of protecting
their frontier. Whether those reports areintended
to be acted upon I know not ; but if so, the
present regular army of the United States will
not be sufficient for the purpose, the lowest
estimation for the garrisons of the proposed forts
being 7,000 rank and file, while at present
their rank and file on the army-list only amounts
to 5,600.

208 INDIANS.
The American forts opposed to ths Indians
are, at present :
Fort Gratiot, River St. Clare.
Mackinaw Island Fort.
Fort Brady, St. Marie, Lake Superior.
Fort Howard, Green Bay.
Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin.
Fort Crawford. Prairie des Chiens.
Fort Snelling, St. Peters.
Fort Leavenworth, Missouri.
Fort Madison, Des Moines River.
Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.
Advanced Forts.
Fort Towson, Red River.
Fort Gibson, Arkansas and GrandJunction River.
Fort Adams, Baton Rouge.
There are one or two outposts also on the
Arkansas River. If all these forts were pro
perly garrisoned, they would take every dispo
sable musket in the regular army of the United
States; whilst at present they have, inconsequence

INDIANS. 209
of the protracted Florida war, scarcely sufficient
men to do the duty.
In the report of the acting quarter-master
general, the following garrisons are proposed for
the western frontier : —
Fort Snelling  300 men.
Fort Crawford  300
Upper forks of the Des Moines ....;. 400
Fort Leavenworth  1,200
Fort Gibson  1,500
Fort Towson  800
The eight posts of refuge proposed... 800
The protection of the four depots ... 200
Jefferson barracks, as a corps of re
serve  1,500
Total  7,000
To which must be added, for the garrisons of
the five Lakes forts, 1,500 at least, making
the force necessary for the protection of the
boundaries, to amount to 8,500 men. Colonel

210 INDIANS.
Gratiot, in his report, computes the force neces
sary at 12,910 men.
The letter of Mr. Poinsett to Congress will
throw much light upon this subject, and I shall
therefore insert it. " Department of War,
" December 30, 1837.
" Sir : — In answer to the resolution of the
House of Representatives, in relation to the
protection of the western frontiers of the United
States, I have the honour to transmit the ac
companying reports of the chief engineer and
the acting quarter-master general, together with
a report of the commissioner of Indian affairs.
That expected from General Gaines will be sent
as soon as it is received.
" In presenting these documents, which are
ably drawn up, and contain full and satisfactory
information on all the topics embraced by the
resolution, I might have considered my duty
fully discharged, had not other plans been pre-

INDIANS. 211
viously recommended, which I regaid as entirely
inefficient, but which have received, in some
measure, the sanction of Congress. A survey
has been directed to determine the line of a road,
which, it is contemplated, shall extend from
some point of the Upper Mississippi to Red
River, passing west of Missouri and Arkansas ;
and it is proposed to place a cordon of temporary
posts of ordinary construction along it, as a
sufficient measure for the defence of that part of
the country. In pursuance of the orders of
Congress, officers have been appointed to perform
that duty, and, upon their report being received,
measures will be taken to carry into effect the
intentions of Congress, unless, upon a deliberate
review of the whole matter, some more eligible
plan of defence shall be adopted. My own opi
nion has been, from the time I first considered
the subject, that such a chain of posts, strung
along the best road that can be constructed, fur
nished with all the means to operate, and with
competent garrisons to occupy them, is not cal-

212 INDIANS.
culated to afford that protection which the border
States have a right to expect from the Govern
ment, nor to redeem its pledge to protect the
emigrant tribes from the savage and warUke
people that surround them. The only possible
use of such a road would be to facilitate occa
sional communications between the posts in time
of peace. Supplies would not be transported
along it, for they must be brought from the
interior. Succours could not reach the posts by
that direction, for they would be furnished by
the militia ¦within the line ; and any attempt to
concentrate the forces composing the garrisons
in the event of an outbreak, would probably be
attended -with disastrous consequences; for the
troops, whose route must be well known, would
be exposed to be attacked and destroyed in de
tail. The enemy, having nothing to dread on
their flanks or rear, might approach this road
without risk, and attack the detachments on their
line of march, before thev could concentrate their
forces so as to offer an effectual resistance.

INDIANS. 213
" After mature reflection, I am of opinion
that military posts ought to be established and
kept up within the Indian territory, in such po
sitions as to maintain peace among the Indians,
and protect the emigrant and feebler tribes
against the stronger and more warlike nations
that surround them ; which the United States
are bound to do by treaty stipulations. To
withdraw those which now exist there, would
be to violate our faith, as there is reason to
apprehend that it would be the signal of war.
Persons well acquainted with that country assure
us that war would break out among the Indians
'just so soon as the troops are removed from
those posts ;' and all accounts from that quarter
confirm that impression.
" Independently of the military protection
which the existence of these posts in the inte
rior of the Indian country afford to the emigrat
ing tribes, and the good they are calculated to
effect by the beneficial influence the officers are
enabled to exert over the surrounding Indians,

214 INDIANS,
they more effectually cover and protect the fron
tier than ten times the number of fortresses,
strung along in one line, could do.
" With the very Umited knowledge of that
country as yet in possession of this department,
it appears to me that six or seven permanent
exterior posts would be sufficient to preserve the
peace of that frontier. It will be necessary, at
the same time, to estabUsh, at convenient points,
an interior line of posts, to serve as places of
refuge for the inhabitants in periods of danger
and alarm, until the militia can march to their
succour from the interior, and the troops be put
in motion upon the rear of the invaders. Eight
of these would be amply sufficient, from which
patrols might be kept up along the frontier to
enforce the intercourse laws. Both descriptions
of forts should be so constructed as to be de
fended by a small garrison, and in a manner that
each part may be successfully maintained against
a very superior force, both during the time the
whole is being completed, and in the event of

INDIANS. 215
any portion of it being burnt or destroyed. This
arrangement would require the establishment of
a few depots of arms and supplies, from which
communications should be opened to the posts.
The accompanying skeleton map presents a
view of the relative positions of the posts and
depots, and of the communications from them
to the line of defence for the speedy transporta
tion of succours and supplies. A regular force
of five thousand men would be suflicient to gar
rison these posts, and, ¦with a competent reserve
at Jefferson barracks, and an effective force at
Baton Rouge, would, I think, both ensure the
safety of the westem frontier, and enable the
Government to fulfil all its treaty stipulations,
and preserve its faith with the Indians. I
would recommend, as an important auxiliary to
this system of defence, the organization of an
efficient volunteer force, to be raised in each of
the frontier States ; the men to be mustered into
service for a certain term of time, the officers to
be appointed according to their State laws, and

216 INDIANS.
to be instructed a certain number of days in
each year by the regular officers of the United
States army at the posts within the States, and
to receive pay during that period. In this man
ner an efficient corps of officers may be created,
and a body of volunteers be at hand to march
to the succour of the border settlers and repel
the invaders, whenever they are called upon by
the proper authority.^
" I venture to hope, if these measures are
adopted by Congress, and carried into effect at
an early day, so as to anticipate any hostile
movement of the Indians, peace will be pre
served on our Western borders; but if they
should, unfortunately, be delayed until the dis
content , which exists among many of the tribes
breaks out into open hostiUty, and the first
movements of that wild and warUke people prove
successful, as they infallibly would do in our
present unprepared state, it might require dou
ble the force and quadruple the means I have here
indicated to restore and preserve peace along

INDIANS. 217
that extended frontier. All which is respect
fully submitted.
" J. R. Poinsett.
" Hon. James K. Polk,
" Speaker of the House of Representatives."
The acting quarter-master-general, in his
report, makes the following observation : —
" The obligations of the Government in refe
rence to the Western frontier are of a very pe
culiar character. It is first bound, by a com
mon duty, to protect its own border settlements,
extending along a line of one thousand miles,
against the incursions of numerous savage tribes,
separated from those settlements by mere ima
ginary lines ; and it is next bound, by the solemn
treaty stipulations, with such of those tribes as
have emigrated to that frontier, ' to protect
theln at their new residences against all inter
ruptions or disturbances from any other tribes
or nations of Indians, or from any other person
or persons whatsoever,'
" If these obligations are to be scrupulously
VOL. III. L

218 INDIANS.
fulfilled in good faith, which would seem to be
due to our character as a nation professing a
paternal care over these people, a military force
of thirty thousand men on the Western frontier
would scarcely be adequate to enable the Go
vemment to discharge its duties to its own citi
zens, and redeem these pledges of protection to
the Indians.
" It is not my intention, however, to propose
such a force. Political expediency, I presume,
would not tolerate it, however it might be justi
fied by miUtary considerations. It is merely
adverted to here ill connexion with the heavy
obligations which rest upon Government, and
which have probably been contracted from time
to time, without any very nice calculation of the
means that would be necessary to a. faithful dis
charge of them. I will, therefore, without
enlarging upon this point, proceed to state the
minimum force that is deemed necessary to give
protection to the border settlements, and assist
in preserving peace among them and their In-

INDIANS. 219
dian neighbours along the line of the frontier.
These are great and important objects of them
selves, without superadding the yet more diffi
cult task of protecting the emigrant tribes,
whom our policy has placed beyond the frontier,
from the wUd and warUke Indians of the Far-
West." And Colonel Gratiot, in his report, makes the
foUowing admission. Speaking of the second,
or middle, section, he says : —
"Second, or Middle Section. — The country
beyond this Une is mostly elevated and free from
marshy ground ; is abundantly watered, thinly
wooded, healthy, and has been assigned for the
permanent residence of the tribes which have
been, or are to be, removed from the States and
territories east of the Mississippi, and is still
occupied by the Aborigines originally found
within its limits. In nunibers they count, ac
cording to some estimates, 131,000, and can
send to the field 26,200 warriors. As yet, no
community of feeling, except of deep and lasting
L 2

¦220 INDIANS.
hatred to the white man, and more particularly
to' the Anglo-Americans, exists among them;
and, unless they coalese, no serious difficulty
need be apprehended from them. Not so, how
ever, should the}- be induced to unite for pur
poses offensive and defensive : their strength
would then become apparent, create confidence,
and, in all probability, induce them to give vent
to their long-suppressed desire to revenge past
wrongs, which is restrained, as they openly and
fr:eely declare, by fear alone. That such a union
will be formed at no distant day, we have every
reason to believe ; and the period may be ac
celerated by their growing wants, and the
policy of Mexico to annoy Texas, and raise
an impenetrable barrier in the direction of her
frontier." That at present the Western frontier is de
fenceless is undeniable, and the Florida war
does not appear to be at all nearer to a conclu
sion than it was two or three years ago. That
the Indians to the west of the Mississippi are

INDIANS. 221
not ignorant of what is going on is very certain ;
and the moral effect arising from the protracted
defence of the Seminoles may eventually prove
most serious, and be attended with enormous
expense to the United States.
The Federal Government takes every precau
tion to impress the Indians with an idea of the
impossibility of their opposing the white men.
The agents persuade the chiefs to go down to
Washington to see their great father, the Pre
sident. On these occasions they are accom
panied by the Indian agent and interpreter,
and, of course, all their expenses are paid. They
are lodged at the hotels, taken to all places of
public amusement, and provided ¦with convey
ances. But the policy of the Government is to
cause them to make a circuit through all the
most populous cities, as the crowds attracted by
the appearance of the Indians give them an ex
traordinary and incorrect idea of the American
population. Wherever they go they are in a
crowd. If they are at the windows of an hotel,
still the crowds are immense ; and this is what

222 INDIANS,
the Government is anxious should take place.
I was at Boston when the two deputations of the
Sioux and Sacs and Foxes tribes arrived. The
two nations being at enmity, the Sioux were con
ducted there first, and left the town on the arrival
of the Sacs and Foxes, or there would probably
have been a fight. The Governor received
the latter in the Town-hall, and made a speech ;
I was present. I thought at the time that it
was not a speech that I would have made to
them, and if I mistook not, it brought up recol
lections not very agreeable to the chiefs,
although they were too politic to express their
feelings. But a few years before, their lands
east of the Mississippi had been wrested from
them in the most unfair way, as I have men
tioned in my remarks upon the treatment of the
Indians by the American Government.
Governor Everett commenced his speech as
follows : —
" Chiefs and warriors of the confederated
Sacs and Foxes, you are welcome to our Hall
of Council. You have come a far way, from

INDIANS. 223.
your red friends of the West, to visit your white
brethren of the East. We are glad to take you
by the hand. We have heard before of the Sac
and the Fox tribes: we have heard much of
their chiefs, warriors, and great men: we are
now glad to see them here. We are of Massa^
chussets : the red men once resided here : their
wigwams were on yondfer hill : and their Coun
cU Chamber was here. When our fathers came
over the great waters, they were a small band,
and you were powerful : the red man stood on
the rock by the seaside, and looked at them
with friendly eyes : he might have pushed them
into the water, but. took them by the hand, and
said welcome, white man. Our fathers were
hungry, and the red man gave them corn and
venison. Our fathers were cold, and the red
man spread his blanket over them and made
them warm. We are now great and powerful,
but we will remember in our prosperity the
benefits bestowed by our red bretjjren in our
adversity."

224 INDIANS.
Up to the present, they certainly have for
gotten them ! I
But the fate of the red man appears to be
nearly decided. What between their wars with
each other, the use of spirituous liquors, and
the diseases imported by the whites, they dwindle
away every day. The most fatal disease to
them is the small-pox. The following account,
which I have extracted from one of the American
papers, was confirmed to me by a letter from Fort
Snelling. : —
Appalling destruction of North-west Indians
by Smallpox.
" We gave yesterday an account of the origin
of this epidemic by means of a steam-boat
trading on the Missouri. To-day we subjoin,
from the St. Louis buUetin slip of March 3d,
a detailed account of its ravages. The disease
had reached the remote band of the, Blackfeet,
and thousands of them had fallen victims. They
do not blame the traders.

INDIANS. 225
" The ' Pipe Stem,' a chief of great influence,
when dying, called his people around him, and
his last request was, that they would love their
traders, and be always governed by their advice.
' I may,' says one of the traders, ' be blamed for
not using measures to arrest the progress of the
disease, but without resort to arms on the arrival
of the boat with supplies, the Indians could not
have been driven from the fort.'
" An express went two days a-head of the
boat, but it was of no use preaching to the
Indians to fly— they flocked down to the boat as
usual when she arrived. The peltry trade in
that quarter is ruined for years. The company
agent at Fort Union, writes, Nov. 30, that all
their prospects on the Upper Missouri are
totally prostrated. The epidemic spread into
the most distant part of the Assinaboin country,
and this tribe were dying by fifties and hundreds
a day. The disease appeared to be of a peculi
arly maUgnant cast ; some, a few moments after
l3

226 ' INDIANS.
severe attacks of pain in the head and loins, fell
down dead, and the bodies turned black im
mediately after, and swelled to three times their
natural size. The companies erected hospitals,
but they were of no use. The carts were con
stantly employed burying the dead in holes;
afterwards, when the earth was frozen, they were
consigned to the water. Many of the squaws
are left in a miserable condition. The disease
has not reached the Sioux, many of whom have
been vaccinated.
" The Mandans, numbering 1,600, living in
permanent villages 1,600 miles above St. Louis,
have all died but thirty-one.
" The Minatarees, or Gros Ventres, living
near the Mandans, numbering about 1,000,
were, by our last accounts, about one half dead,
and the di-sease still raging.
" Tht Arickarees, amounting to 3,000, who
but lately abandoned a wandering life, and
joined the Mandans, were about half dead, and

INDIANS. 227
the disease still among them. It is probable
they have been reduced in proportion to the
Mandans. " The Assinaboins, a powerful tribe, about
9,000 strong, Uving entirely by the chase, and
ranging north of the Missouri, in the plains
below the Rocky Mountains, down towards the
Hudson's Bay Company, on the north Red
River, are literally annihilated. Their principal
trade was at Fort Union, mouth of the YeUow
Stone- " The Crees, living in the same region, num
bering 3,000, are nearly all destroyed. The
great nation called Blackfeet, who wander and
live by the chase, ranging through all the region
of the Rocky Mountains, divided into bands —
Piegans, Gros Ventres, Blood Indians, and
Blackfeet, amounting in all to 50,000 or 60,000,
have deeply suffered. One thousand lodges or
families have been destroyed, and the disease
was rapidly spreading among the different bands.

228 INDIANS.
The average number in a lodge is from six to
eight persons,
" The boat that brought up the small-pox
made her voyage last summer, and the ravages
of the distemper appear to have been greatest
in October. It broke out among the Mandans,
July 15th. Many of the handsome Arickarees
who had recovered, seeing the disfiguration of
their features, committed suicide; some by
throwing themselves from rocks, others by
stabbing, shooting, &c. The prairie has become
a grave yard ; its ¦wild flowers bloom over the
sepulchres of Indians. The atmosphere for
miles is poisoned by the stench of hundreds of
carcases unburied. The women and chUdren
are wandering in groups without food, or howUng
over the dead. The men are flying in every
direction. The proud, warUke, and noble look
ing Blackfeet are no more. The deserted lodges
are seen on the hills, but no smoke issues from
them. No sound but the raven's croak, and

INDIANS. 229
the wolf's long howl, breaks the awful still
ness. The wolves fatten on the dead carcases.
The scene of desolation is described as ap
palling beyond the. powers of imagination to
conceive." That they may give the Americans much
trouble, however, previous to their final extermi
nation, is true, and that they are very anxious
to revenge themselves, is equally certain. The
greatest misfortune which could happen to the
United States would be a union or mixture of
the negroes with the Indian tribes. If this were
to take place, the population would, in all proba
bility, rapidly increase, instead of faUing away
as it now does ; as then the negro population
would till the ground sufficiently for the support
of themselves and the Indians, as they now
do among the Creek and Seminole tribes,
who have plenty of cattle and corn. The
American Indian in his natural state suffers
much . from hunger, and this is one cause of
the non-increase of their population. What

230 INDIANS.
might be effected by the bands now concentrated
on the American frontier, if at any future time
they should become amalgated with the negroes,
will be fairly estimated by .the reader when he
has read the account I am about to lay before
im of the war in Florida.

231

CHAPTER IX.
CAUSES OF THE FLORIDA WAR.
Most of my countrymen are aware that the
Americans have been carryingon a war against the
Florida Indians for the last two or three years ;
the details, however, are not so well known ; and
as this Florida war ought to be a lesson to the
Americans, and may, as a precedent to the other
Indians, prove of great importance, I shaU
enter into the particulars of it. I am moved,
indeed, so to do, as it will afford the reader a
very fair specimen of the general poUcy and
mode of treatment shewn to the Indians by the
American Govemment. Florida was ceded by
Spain to the United States as a set-off" against
500,000 dollars, claimed by the Americans
for spoliations committed on her commerce.

232 CAUSES OF THE
The white population of Florida is not very
numerous even now ; the census of 1830 gave
18,000 whites and 16,000 slaves, independent of
the Florida Indians, or Seminoles. Seminoles
is a term for runaways or wanderers ; the In
dian tribes in Florida being a compound of the
old Florida Indians, two varieties of Creeks, who
quitted their tribe previous to their removal west
of the Mississippi, and Africans who are slaves to
the Indians. Their numbers atthe commencement
of the war were estimated as follows : — Warriors.
TheMico-sukee Indians, of which Osseola,
or Asseola, was one of the principal
chiefs  400
Creek and Spanish Indians  850
Negroes  600 to 700
In all about 1900 warriors.
The chief of the whole Seminole nation is
Mic-e-no-pah, and next to him in consequence,
as orator of the nation, is an Indian of the
name of Jumper. It must be observed that

FLORIDA WAR. 233
these Indians, having slaves, cultivated the
ground and had large stocks of cattle. Florida,
like all the confines of the United States, had a
white population not very creditable to any
country, and many of these people went there
more with a view of robbing the Indians of their
negroesandcattle, and sellingthem in the Western
States, than with any intention of permanently
settling in the country.
As soon as the Floridas were ceded by the
Spanish, the American Government perceived
the expediency of removing the Indians from
the territories, and, on the 18th of September
1823, a treaty was entered into with the Indians,
by which the Indians, on their part, agreed to
remove to the westward after twenty years from
that date, that is on September 18th, 1843. By
the same treaty the American Govemment
secured to the Indians a tract of land in Florida,
containing five milUons of acres, for their sub
sistence during the time that they remained in
that State ; and agreed to pay the Indians certain

234 CAUSES OF THE
advances, in consequence of their surrendering
all title to the rest of the Florida country, and
engaging: to confine themselves to the limits of
the territory allotted to them.
Nothing could be more plain or simple than
the terms of this treaty, which, in consequence of
the council being held at this spot, was denomi
nated the treaty of Camp Moultrie.
The third article inthe treaty of Camp Moul
trie runs as follows : — " The United States will
take the Florida Indians under their care and
patronage, and will afford them protection.
against all persons whatsoever."
One of the great errors committed by the
American Government was in binding itself to
perform what was not in its power. It could no
more protect these Indians against the white
marauders than it could prevent the insurgents
from attacking Upper Canada. The arm of the
Federal Government is too weak to reach its own
confines, as ¦wUl hereafter be she^wn by its own
acknowledgment. The consequence was that,

FLORIDA WAR. 235
very soon after the treaty of Camp Moultrie had
been signed, the Indians were robbed and plun
dered by the miscreants who hovered near them
for that purpose.
An American author states that two men,
Robinson and Wilbu'rn, belonging to Georgia,
contrived to steal from one chief twenty slaves,
to the value of 15,000 dollars, and carried them
to New Orleans. I will however quote a portion
of the work.
" Another influential chief, Emachitochustern,
commonly caUed John Walker, was robbed of a
number of slaves in a somewhat similar manner.
After making an appeal to the government
agent, without the least chance of redress, he
says : — ' I don't like to make any trouble or to
have any quarrel with white people, but, if they
wiU trespass on my lands and rights, I must
defend myself the best way I can, and if they
do come again they must bear the consequences.
But is there no civil law to protect me .'' are the

236 CAUSES OF THE
negroes belonging to me to be stolen away pub-
Ucly in the face of all law and justice ? carried
off and sold to fill the pockets of these land
pirates ? Douglass and his company have hired
a man, who has two large trained dogs for the
purpose, to come here and take off others. He
is from Mobile, and follows catching negroes.'
" Colonel John Blount, another estimable
chief, was inhumanly beaten by a party of white
men, who robbed him of several hundred dollars ;
he made application to the authorities, but the
villains were allowed to escape.
" These facts show how mild and forbearing
the Seminoles have acted under the most trying
circumstances; and even when their property
has been assailed in this way, they have, in
numerous instances, refrained from making
resistance; their hands were bound, as the
severest punishment awaited any attack they
might make upon the intruders, even though cir
cumstances justified it. But as the Indian's
evidence could not be received in a court of jus-

FLORIDA WAR. 237
tice, the white man's oath would condemn him to
the most torturing punishment."
But in every way were the poor Indians the
prey of the white men. The same author says,
among many other cases brought forward, " A
man, by the name of Floyd, was employed by
an Indian woman to recover some negroes for
her, and instead of presenting a mere power of
attorney for her signature, she found, alas! it was
a bill of sale for all her negroes ! Another
individual was requested by Miconopy, governor
of the Seminoles, to draw a piece of writing for
him, to which, without suspicion of its character,
he attached his name ; it was soon after dis
covered to be a conveyance of a large tract of
land! Another source of profit to these scoundrels
was the obtaining by fraudulent means from the
Indians, orders upon the American Government
for the payment of portions of their annuity
granted in return for the cession of the territory.
" One of the government agents was a deUnquent

238 CAUSES OF THE
to them for a considerable amount. He robbed
he principal interpreter of the nation, a very
influential black chief by the name of Abraham,
of several hundred doUars, by getting a receipt
from him without paying the money, under the
plea that it was necessary to send the receipt to
Washington, where it was filed to the credit of
the agent. Several other Indians of influence
were robbed in a similar manner ; and when they
demanded the money from the succeeding agent,
they were told that the government would not
pay them. Is not this an unsound principle to
adopt in our intercourse with the Indians.? Is it
just or honourable for us to send our own agents
among them, without their approval, and not
hold ourselves responsible for their conduct .'' If
we were indebted to a nation, and the funds are
sent through an agent to pay over, and he
neglects to do so, are we not still Uable, and
would not a civiUzed power still hold us res
ponsible .?"
I have mentioned these facts to show that

FLORIDA WAR. 239
the Indians were justified in their want of faith in
the white men : they were robbed and pillaged
and had no redress ; nay, they were imprisoned
as thieves for taking away their own cattle which
had been stolen from them, although they
showed their own marks and brands upon
them. Whether the American Goverament
suffered all this spoliation ¦with a view to disgust
the Indians and incline them to remove to the
westward, the reader will be better able to judge
for himself when he has read a few pages more.
The Florida people were now subjected to
retaliation on the part of the Indians, who,
finding that they could obtain no redress,
naturally took the law into their own hands,
and loss of life on both sides was the conse
quence. This produced petition after peti
tion from the Florida white population to the
government, requesting that the Indians might
be moved west prior to 1843, the period agreed
upon by the treaty of Camp Moultrie. Colonel
Gadsden, a citizen qf Florida, was appointed

240 CAUSES Of THE
commissioner to treat with the Indians, and on
the Sth of April 1832, had an interview with
Mic-e-no-pah, and a few other chiefs. The Indians
requested thirty days to collect the opinions of
the absent chiefs, and on the 8th of May 1832,
they met the commissioner, according to appoint
ment, at Payne's Landing. The commissioner
had a great deal of difficulty in obtaining their
consent to the removal, which was ultimately
given upon certain conditions.
By this treaty, the Indians agreed to remove
west upon being paid a certain sum for the
reserved land ; an annuity for a certain number
of years ; and other advantages, which would
occupy too much space to particularize here.
The treaty was signed by Mic-e-no-pah, the
head chief. Jumper, and thirteen more.
But the treaty was assented to upon one con
dition, which was, that the Seminoles were satis
fied with the lands apportioned to them west of
the Mississippi. This is acknowledged by Colo
nel Gadsden, in his letter to the Secretary of War,

FLORIDA WAK. 241
who says — " There is a condition prefixed to the
agreement, without assenting to which the
Florida Indians most positively refused to nego
tiate for their removal west of the Mississippi.
Even with the condition annexed, there was a
reluctance (which with some difficulty was over
come) on the part of the Indians, to bind them
selves by any stipulations before a knowledge of
facts and circumstances would enable them to
judge of the advantages or disadvantages of the
disposition the government of the United States
wished to make of them. They were finally
induced, however, to assent to the agreement."
" The final ratification of the treaty will depend
upon the opinion of the seven chiefs selected to
explore the country west of the Mississippi river.
If that corresponds to the description given, or
is equal to the expectations formed of it, there
vrill be no difficulty on the part of the Seminoles."
There was a very unwise delay on the part of
the American government after the signing of
this second treaty. More than two years were per-
VOL. III. M

242 CAUSES OF THE
mitted to elapse before any appropriation of land
was made for the Indians, who became dissatis
fied, and the treaty was by them pronounced to
be " a white man's treaty," which they did not
any longer consider to be binding.
But there were other reasons why the Seminoles
did not consider the treaty as binding ; they did
not like the lands alloted to them. A deputa
tion of seven was sent west of the Missis
sippi : the land they acknowledged was good
land, but they found that they were close to the
Pawnee territory, and that that tribe was pro
verbially famous for stealing cattle and horses.
It was also the determination of the American
Government, as they were considered as a por
tion of the Creek nation, to settle them near
to and incorporate them with that nation. This
did not suit them ; the Creeks had claimed many
of their slaves, and they knew that they had no
chance with so superior a force as that of the
Creek nation, who would have taken all their
slaves from them. As, therefore, the Pawnees

FLORIDA WAR. 243
would have stolen all their cattle, and the Creeks
have taken aU their slaves, they considered that
utter destitution would be the consequence of the
removal as proposed by the American Govern
ment. To get over the latter difficulty, the
government proposed that the Seminoles should
sell their slaves previous to their removing, but
this they objected to. The American author I
have quoted says : —
" It was then suggested to them that, by a
sale of these negroes before they left Florida,
they would augment their resources, and could
go into their new country Svithout the dread of
exciting the cupidity of the Creeks. But these
Indians have always evinced great reluctance to
parting with slaves : indeed the Indian loves his
negro as much as one of his own children, and
the sternest necessity alone would drive him to
the parting: this recommendation was, there
fore, viewed with evident alarm, and as the right
of retaining possession of them was guaranteed
M 2

244 CAUSES OF THE
by the commissioner, strong doubts were raised
as to the sincerity of the pledge.
" The Seminole Indians are poor agriculturists
and husbandmen, and withal too indolent to till
the ground, and, without their negroes, would
literally starve : besides, should they dispose of
them they could not be replenished in a new
country. Again : the opposition of the slaves
themselves to being sold to the whites would
excite all their energies to prevent emigration,
for they dread the idea of being transferred to
sugar and cotton plantations, where they must be
subject to the surveiUance of the overseer. The
life of a slave among the Indians, compared with
that of negroes under overseers, is one of luxury
and ease ; the demands upon him are very
trifling, scarcely ever exceeding eight or ten
bushels from the crop, the remainder being
applied to his own profit : they live separate,
and often remote, from their owners, and enjoy
an equal share of liberty. The negro is also

FLORIDA WAR. 245
much more provident and ambitious than his
master, and the peculiar localities of the country
eminently facilitate him in furnishing the Indian
with rum and tobacco, which gives him a con
trolling influence over the latter, and at the
same time affords him an immense profit ; so
that it can be easily imagined that the negroes
would in no manner be benefitted by the
change." On the 23d of October, 1834, being two years
and a half after the signing of the second treaty
at Payne's Landing, a council of Indians was
again summoned by the agent, who informed
them that all they had now to answer were the
following questions : —
Will you incorporate yourselves with the
Greek nation in the Far- West ?
WiU you have money for your cattle which
you leave here on your arrival there, or will
you have cattle in return ?
Will you go by water, or by land ?

248 CAUSES OF THE
Will you have your next annuity paid in
money or in goods ?
Upon this, the chiefs retired and held a pri
vate council. It is said that Asseola, the princi
pal chief of the tribe of Micosukees, persuaded
them strongly to resist going, and declared that
he would consider as his enemy any one who
agreed to go. Asseola had not signed the treaty.
The next day the council was resumed, and the
chiefs made the following replies to the agent.
The first who spoke was Holata Mico, prin
cipal war chief. He expressed his wish that
there should be no quarrelling, at the same time
that he gave his evidence as to the truth of the
first book of Moses.
" Holata Mico then rose, and said — ' God
made all of us, and we all came from one
woman, sucked one bubby ; we hope we shall
not quarrel ; that we will talk until we get
through.' " Miconopy then said — ' When we were at

FLORIDA WAR. 247
Camp Moultrie we made a treaty, and we were
to be paid our annuity for twenty years. That
is all 1 have got to say.'
" Jumper said — ' At Camp Moultrie they
told us all diflnculties should be buried for
twenty years, from the date of the treaty made
there ; that after this we held a treaty at Payne's
Landing, before the twenty years were out ; and
they told us we might go and see the country,
but that we were not obliged to remove. The
land is very good, I saw it, and was glad to see
it ; the neighbours there are bad people ; I do
not like them bad Indians, the Pawnees. I
went and saw the place ; I told the agent that I
was a rogue ; that he had brought me to the
place here alongside, and among the rogues, the
bad Pawnees, because I am a rogue. I went to
see the land, and the commissioners said that
the Seminoles must have that land. When we
went west to see the land, we had not sold our
land here, and we were told only to go and see
it. The Indians there steal horses, and take

248 CAUSES OF THE
packs on their horses ; they all steal horses from
the different tribes ; I do not want to go among
such people ; your talk seems always good, but
we don't feel disposed to go west.'
" Charley Amathia then rose, and said —
' The speakers of the nation are all dead ; but
I recollect some of their words when they had
the meeting at Camp Moultrie. I was not there,
but heard that we would be at peace, and that
we would have our annuity paid to us for twenty
years. White people have told me that the
treaty at Camp Moultrie, which was made by
great men, and not to be broken, had secured
them for twenty years; that seven years of
that treaty are still unexpired. I am no half
breed, and do not lean on one side If they tell
me to go after the seven years, I say nothing.
As to the proposition made us by the agent
about removing, I do not say I will not go ;
but I think that, until the seven years are out,
I give no answer. My family I love dearly
and sacredly. I do not think it right to take

FLORIDA WAR. 249
them right off. Our father has often said to me
that he loves his children — and they love him.
When a man is at home, and got his stock about
him, he looks upon it as the subsistence of him
self and family. Then when they go off, they
reflect and think more seriously than when
quiet at home. I do not complain of the agent's
talk. My young men and family are all around
me. Should I go west, I should lose many on
the path. As to the country west, I looked at
it ; a weak man cannot get there, the fatigue
would be so great ; it requires a strong man.' "
This talk made the agent very angry ; he
told them that they should stand by the treaty
at Payne's Landing ; he desired them to re
tire, and when they came again to act like chiefs
and honourable men.
« October 25, 1834. The council covened at
11 o'clock. Interpreters as yesterday.
" The agent said to the councU, ' I am ready
to receive your answers to the questions which I
submitted to you.' M 3

250 CAUSES OF THE
" Holato Mico. — ' I have only to repeat what
I said yesterday, and to say that the twenty years
from the treaty at Moultrie has not yet expired.
I never gave my consent to go west ; the whites
may say so, but I never gave my consent.'
" Jumper. — ' We are not satisfied to go until
the end of twenty years, accorcfing to the treaty
at Camp Moultrie. We were called upon to
go to the west, beyond the Mississippi. It is a
good country ; this is a poor country, we know.
We had a good deal of trouble to get there ;
what would it be for all our tribe.'
" Miconopy. — ' I say, what I said yesterday, I
did not sign the treaty.'
" Agent — ' Abraham, tell Miconopy that I
say he lies ; he did sign the treaty, for here is
his name.' "
Miconopy here asserts that he did not sign
the treaty, which certainly appears to be a
falsehood': but it should be remembered that, by
the agent's own admission, it was only a condi
tional signature by a portion of the chiefs, pro-

FLORIDA WAR. 251
vided that they liked the location offered to
them ; and as they objected to this, the treaty
was certainly, in my opinion, nuU and void.
Indeed, the agent had no right to demand the
signatures when such an important reservation
was attached to the treaty. I do not give the
whole of the agent's reply, as there is so much
repetition ; the following are extracts : —
" I have told you that you must stand to
your bargain. My talk is still the same. You
must go west. Your father, the President, who
is your friend, will compel you to go. There
fore, be not deluded by any hope or expectation
that you will be permitted to remain here. You
have expressed a wish to hear my views and
opinion upon the whole matter. As a man, and
your friend, I will this day deign to reason with
you ; for I want to show you that your talk of
to-day is the foolish talk of a child.
" Jumper says, they agreed at Payne's Land
ing to go and examine the country west, but
they were not bound to remove to it until the

2o2 CAUSES OF THF,
nation should agree to do so, after the return of
the delegation ; and he adds, what others of you
have said, that the treaty at Camp Moultrie was
to stand for twenty years. Such a talk from
Jumper surprises me, for he is a man of sense.
He understands the treaty at Payne's Landing,
which he signed ; he was the first named in that
treaty, of the delegation appointed to go west ;
he knows that that treaty gave him and the
members of the delegation authority to decide
whether the nation should remove or not.
" The Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and
Cherokees, who live in the States, are moving
west of the Mississippi river, because they cannot
live under the white people's laws ; they are
gone and going, and the Seminole nation are a
small handful to their number. Two govern
ments cannot exist under the same boundary of
territory. Where Indians remain within the
'limits of a state or territory until the juris
diction of a state or territory shall be extended
over them, the Indian government, laws and

FLORIDA WAR. 253
chiefships, are for ever done away — the Indians
are subject to the white man's law. The Indian
must be tried, whether for debt or crime, in the
white man's court ; the Indian's law is not to be
known there ; the Indian's evidence is not to be
admitted there ; the Indian wiU, in every thing,
be subject to the control of the white man. It
is this view of the subject which induces your
father, the President, to settle his red children
beyond the limits of the states and territories
where the white man's law is never to reach you,
and where you and your children are to possess
the land, while the grass grows and the water
runs. He feels for his red children as a father
should feel. It is, therefore, that he made the
treaty with you at Payne's Landing, and for the
same reason he will compel you to comply with
your bargain. But let us look a little more
closely into your own situation. Suppose (what
is however impossible) that you could be per
mitted so remain here a few years longer, what
would be your condition .'' his land will soon

254 CAUSES OF THE
be Purveyed, sold to, and settled by, the whites.
There is now a surveyor in the country ; the
jurisdiction of the territory will soon be ex
tended over this country. Your laws will be
set aside, your chiefs will cease to be chiefs ';
claims for debt and for your negroes would be
set up against you by bad white men, or you
would perhaps be charged with crimes affecting
life; you would be hauled before the white marids
court ; the claims against you for debt, for your
negroes or other property, and the charges of
crime preferred against you, would be decided
by the white man^s law. White men would be
witnesses against you ; Indians would not be
permitted to give evidence ; your condition, in
a very few years, would be hopeless wretched
ness." What an admission from their father, the Pre
sident, after having, in the third article of the
treaty of Camp Moultrie, declared that the
United States will afford the Florida Indians
protection against all persons whatsoever ! ! !

FLORIDA WAR, 255
" Thus, you may see, that were it possible for
you to remain here a few years longer, you
would be reduced to hopeless poverty, and when
urged by hunger to ask, perhaps, of the man
who thus would have ruined you (and is,
perhaps, now tampering with you for the purpose
of getting your property) for a crust of bread,
you might be called an Indian dog, and be
ordered to clear out. [Here Asseola, who was
seated by Miconopy, urged him to be firm in
his resolution.] Your father, the President,
sees all these evils, and will save you from them
by removing you west ; and I will stand up for
the last time to tell you, that you must go; and if
not willingly, you will be compelled to go. I
should have told you that no more annuity will
be paid to you here. \Asseola replied, that he
did not care whether any more was ever paid.]
I hope you will, on more mature reflection, act
like honest men, and not compel me to report
you to your father, the President, as faithless to
your engagements."

256 CAUSES OF TIIE
" Assepla said, the decision of the chiefs was
given; that they did not intend to give any
other answer.
" Miconopy said — ' I do not intend to re
move.' " The Agent, — « I am now fully satisfied that
you are wilfully disposed to be entirely dishonest
in regard to your engagements with the Presi
dent, and regret that I must so report you.
The talk which I have made to you must and
wiU stand.' "
Thus, indeed, the council and the parties
separated. The American government was su
pine, thinking, probably, that the Indians would
not resist much longer ; but the Indians, on the
other hand, laid up large stores of powder and
lead. Six months elapsed, and then the Indians
were informed that they were to hear the last
talk of the father, the President on this side of
the Mississippi. On the 22d of April, 1835,
the Indians assembled, and had the following
communication from General Jackson : —

FLORIDA WAR, 257
" To the Chiefs and Warriors of the Seminole
Indians in Florida.
" My Children : I am sorry to have heard
that you have been listening to bad counsels.
You know me, and you know that I would not
deceive, nor advise you to do any thing that tvas
unjust or injurious. Open your ears and attend
to what I shall now say to you. They are the
words of a friend, and the words of truth.
" The white people are settling around you.
The game has disappeared from your country.
Your people are poor and hungry. All this
you have perceived for some time. And nearly
three years ago, you made an agreement with
your friend. Colonel Gadsden, acting on the
part of the United States, by which you agreed to
cede your lands in Florida, and to remove and
join your brothers, the Creeks, in the country
west of the Mississippi. You annexed a con
dition to this agreement, that certain chiefs,
named therein, in whom you placed confidence,
should proceed to the western country, and ex-

258 CAUSES OF THE
amine whether it was suitable to your wants and
habits ; and whether the Creeks residing there
were willing to permit you to unite with them
as one people, and if the persons thus sent, were
satisfied on these heads, then the agreement
made with Colonel Gadsden was to be in full
force. " In conformity with these provisions, the
chiefs named by you proceeded to that country,
and having examined it, and having become
satisfied respecting its character and the favour
able disposition of the Creeks, they entered into
an agreement with commissioners on the part of
the United States, by which they signified their
satisfaction on these subjects, and finally ratified
the agreement made with Colonel Gadsden.
" I now learn that you refuse to carry into
effect the solemn promises thus made by you,
and that you have stated to the officers of the
United States, sent among you, that you wiU
not remove to the westem country.
" My chUdren : I have never deceived, nor

FLORIDA WAR, 259
wiU I ever deceive, any of the red people, I
teU you that you must go, and that you will
go. Even if you had a right to stay, how could
you live where you now are ? You have sold
all your country. You have not a piece as large
as a blanket to sit down upon. What is to sup
port yourselves, your women and children ?
The tract you have ceded will soon be surveyed
and sold, and immediately afterwards will be
occupied by a white population. You will soon
be in a state of starvation. You will commit
depredations upon the property of our citizens.
You will be resisted, punished, perhaps killed.
Now, is it not better peaceably to remove to a
fine, fertile country, occupied by your o^wn kin
dred, and where you can raise all the necessaries
of life, and where game is yet abundant .'' The
annuities payable to you, and the other stipu
lations made in your favour, will make your
situation comfortable, and will enable you to
increase and improve. If, therefore, you had
a right to stay where you now are, stUl every

260 CAUSES OF THE
true friend would advise you to remove. But you
have no right to stay, and you must go. I am
very desirous that you should go peaceably
and voluntarily. You shall be comfortably
taken care of and kindly treated on the road,
and when you arrive in your new country, pro
visions will be issued to you for a year, so that
you can have ample time to provide for your
future support.
" But lest some of your rash young men
should forcibly oppose your arrangements for
removal, I have ordered a large military force
to be sent among you. I have directed the
commanding officer, and likewise the agent,
your friend. General Thompson, that every
reasonable indulgence be held out to you. Bilt
I have also directed that one-third of your
people, as provided for in the treaty, be removed
during the present season. If you listen to the
voice of friendship and truth, you will go quietly
and voluntarily. But should you listen to the
bad birds that are always flying about you, and

FLORIDA WAR, 261
refuse to remove, I have then directed the com
manding officer to remove you by force. This
will be done. I pray the Great Spirit, therefore,
to incline you to do what is right.
" Your friend,
" A. Jackson."
" (Washington, Februai-y 16, 1835."
Several of the Indian chiefs replied, wishing
for amity but unwilling to quit ; but the council
-was broken up by the agent, who informed them
that he had been sent there to enforce the treaty :
he had warriors enough to do it, and he would
do it. It ¦was the question now whether they
would go of their own accord, or by force ?
This determination on the part of the agent
induced some of the chiefs to waver, and even
tually eight principal chiefs and eight sub-
chiefs signed the articles agreeing to remove ;
but Miconopy, the chief of the whole tribes.
Jumper, the second in consequence, and three
other powerful chiefs, refused. Upon this, the

262 CAUSES OF THE
agent took upon himself the most unwarrantable
responsibility, by saying, Miconopy was no
longer chief of the nation, and that his name
and the other opposing chiefs were now struck
out of the council of the nation.
That such an act as this was the cause of the
greatest irritation to the Seminoles there can be
no doubt ; and the conduct of the agent was re
proved by the Secretary of War, who, in his
letter, observes, —
" It is not necessary for me to enter into
much detail on the subject presented by you.
I understand from Mr. Harris, that he commu
nicated to you the President's views on the sub
ject of the chiefs whom you declined to recog
nize in all questions connected ¦with the removal
of the Seminoles. I understand that the Presi
dent deemed this course an incorrect one ; and
it seems to me obviously liable to strong objec
tions. We do not assume the right of deter
mining who shall be the chiefs in the various
Indian tribes ; this is a matter of internal policy

FLORIDA WAR. 263
which must necessarily be left to themselves.
And if, when we have a grave matter for ad
justment with one of the tribes, we undertake
to say it shall be determined by a particular
class of individuals, we certainly should render
ourselves obnoxious to censure. It appears to
me the proper course, upon important questions,
is to treat directly with the tribe itself; and if
they depute their chiefs, or any other indi
vidual to act for them, we must either recog
nize such authority or abandon the object in
view." In June 1835, Asseola, the chief of Micosu
kees, who did not appear at the councU, but who
was the most determined opponent of the treaty,
came in to complain of the treatment his people
had received from some white men, one of
them having been wounded. He received no
redress, and saying something offensive to the
agent, he was thrown into prison. To obtain
his release he promised to sign the treaty, at

264 CAUSES OF THE
least, so it is said, and that he did sign it ; but
this must be considered only as an Indian stra
tagem : he had been imprisoned without any
cause, and it is to be presumed that he thought
himself justified in escaping by a corresponding
fraud on his own part. The month after this oc
currence, some of the tribe of Asseola murdered
a government mail-carrier.
The Indians made one more effort : they called
a council, and offered to remove to the west of
the Mississippi, provided they had lands and an
agent for themselves ; but this was sternly re
fused by the government, who sent back as an
answer, that their great father. General Jackson,
had been " made very angry." The attacks
and depredations upon the Indians were now
more frequent, and the majority of them deter
mined upon resistance. Only six chiefs, out of
all who had signed the treaty, acted to their word
and brought in their cattle, &c. for the govern
ment agent, to be sold previous to their migra-

FLORIDA WAR. 265
tion. Five of their chiefs removed to the pro
tection of Brooke's Fort, as they feared that the
Seminoles would punish them for their revolt.
One of them, Charley Amathia, was preparing to
follow the others, when Asseola and two other
chiefs went to his house and insisted that he
should not remove his people. Charley Amathia
replied that he had already pledged his word
that he would abide by the promise which he
made to their great father, and that if his
life paid the forfeit, he felt bound to adhere to
that promise. He said he had lived to see his
nation a ruined and degraded people, and he be
lieved that their only salvation was in removing
to the West : that he had made arrangements
for his people to go, and had delivered to the
agent all their cattle, so that he had no ex
cuse now for not complying with his engage
ments. One of the chiefs then informed him
that the crisis was come : he must either join
them in their opposition, or suffer death, and
that two hours would be allowed him to consult
VOL III. N

266 CAUSES OF THE
his people and declare his determination. He re
plied, that his mind was unalterable, and his
people could not make him break his word ; that
if he must die he hoped they would grant him
time enough to make some arrangements for the
good of his people. At this moment Asseola
raised his rifle and was about to fire, when
Abraham arrested the murderous aim, and re
quested them all to retire for a council with the
other chiefs. Asseola, with a small party, how
ever, separated themselves from the main body
of the Indians, and returned to Charley Amath-
la's, and shot him. Thirteen of Amathla's
people immediately escaped to Fort King, while
the others, deterred by their fears, remained
until the return of the principal band, when
they joined the hostUe party."
This was a fine trait in the Indian, and
proves that the Seminoles are not the faith
less people they are represented to be by the
government agents. The death of this noble
Indian was the signal for the commencement of

FLORIDA WAR, 267
hostilities ; the Indians immediately abandoned
all their towns, and, concealing their trail, re
moved their families to a place of safety, which
has ever since baffled all conjecture as to its
whereabout, and its secresy been a subject of the
greatest astonishment.

N 2

268

CHAPTER X.
FLORIDA WAR.
It is naturally conjectured that the Seminoles
retreated to some portion of the vast swamps
which surround the Ouithlacoochee river ; but
certain it is that since the commencement of the
war, in December 1835, up to the present time,
their retreat has never been discovered. Marau
ding parties now commenced on the part of the
Indians, who took summary vengeance on those
who had robbed and maltreated them. The whole
country from Fort Brooke to Fort King was in a
state of conflagration, and the whites were com
pelled to abandon every thing, and seek protec
tion under the forts. At the outbreak of hosti
lities the American force in the department
did not amount to five hundred men. The

FLORIDA WAR, 269
mUitia were called out, but mUitary stores
were not at hand, and it was decided that the
troops must wait for reinforcements before any
attack could be made upon the Indians ; the
great object was to throw a reinforcement into
Fort King.
General Clinch, who commanded at Fort
Brooke, having been reinforced with thirty-nine
men from Key West, no time was lost in pre
paring two companies for the above service. On
the 24th of December 1835, a force of one hun
dred men, and eight officers, with a field-piece,
under the command of Major Dade, coirimenced
their march.
On the morning of the 28th, when it had
proceeded four miles from the encampment of
the previous night, this force was attacked
by the Indians, whose first volley was very
destructive, Major Dade ¦with almost every
man of the advanced guard falUng dead. The
Indians were repelled by the troops under Cap
tain Gardner, upon whom the command then

270 FLORIDA WAR.
devolved, and the Americans proceeded to throw
up breastworks; but before they could raise
them high enough for efficient protection, the
Indians attacked them again. The Americans
brought their field-piece into play, but the
breastworks not being high enough, the Indians
shot down every man who attempted to work
the gun. All the officers, and more than two-
thirds of the American troops had fallen, when
the survivors found that aU their ammunition
was expended. The Indians, perceiving this,
rushed in, and, with the exception of two men,
who, although severely wounded, contrived to
conceal themselves, and ultimately to make their
escape, not one of the whole detachment was
spared. The force of the Indians is supposed to have
been about three hundred and fifty or four
hundred. The contest lasted six hours ; and it
must be admitted that nothing could be more
gallant than the defence made by the troops
against such a superior force.

FLORIDA WAR. 271
On the afternoon of the same day, the Ameri
cans had to lament the loss of General Thomp
son, the Indian agent at Fort King. Impru
dently strolling out about three hundred yards
from the fort, he was attacked by the Indians,
who waited in ambush for him, and, with Lieut;
Smith and three other people belonging to the
fort, was shot dead. This party of Indians
was headed by Asseola, who had warned Gene
ral Thompson that the white men should suffer
for their treatment of him. His peculiar and
shrill war-yell was given as the Indian party
retreated, to let the whites know to whom they
were indebted for the massacre.
General Clinch having been reinforced at
Fort Brooke, (where he had two hundred regular
troops,) with five hundred volunteers under the
command of General Call, now moved with the
whole force of seven hundred men.
On the 30th of December, as they were
passing the Ouithlacoochee river, the Indians

272 FLORIDA WAR,
watched their opportunity, and, when a portion
only of the troops had gained the opposite side,
commenced an attack, which was vigorously
and successfully resisted ; the Indians, in little
more than an hour, were beaten off. The battle
was, however, severe, and the Americans sus
tained a loss of sixty-three kUled and wounded.
The Indian force is supposed to have amounted
to seven hundred men.
But independently of these conflicts with the mi
litia and regulars, the ravages of the Indians over
the whole country are stated to have been most
fearful. Women and children were murdered, and
the hearth made desolate in every portion of the
country. In the more settled parts near St. Au
gustine, the sugar-cane plantations, ¦with the ex
pensive works attached to them, were destroyed,
and in many cases the slaves who were on the
plantations were either carried off, or, voluntarily
joining the Indians, increased the strength of
the enemy. More than a hundred estates were

FLORIDA WAR, 273
thus laid waste, the average loss upon each estate
being computed, independently of the loss of the
negroes, at fifty thousand dollars.
The intelligence of this havoc, and the mas
sacre of Major Dade and his whole party, soon
reached the neighbouring States, and a requi
sition for assistance made by General Clinch,
was promptly responded to. Meetings were
organized at Augusta, Savannah, Darien, and
Charleston, and in a few days nearly two
thousand volunteers were ready to march to
the theatre of war. Indeed, the cause now
became the cause of aU the slave-holding States,
and was taken up with the usual energy of the
Americans. In Louisiana the same spirit was shewn. Ge
neral Gaines was at that time on a tour of in
spection, and had received orders to take charge
of the troops assembling on the Mexican fron
tier; but, at the request of the volunteers, he took
the command of them until he could receive fur
ther orders from Washington. The assistance of
n3

274 FLORIDA WAR,
the American naval forces were demanded and
obtained, and General Gaines having received
intelligence that Fort Brooke was invested by
the Indians, sent an express to General Clinch at
Fort King, to say that he would join him with his
forces to relieve the post. The Seminole Indians
who had agreed to the treaty, remained firm to
their word, aftd took up arms against their
brethren, and a large force was now marching
from all directions to the succour of the whites,
I ought here to observe, that not only at the
commencement, but ever since the war has con
tinued, the difficulty and expense of forwarding
supplies have been very great, and the American
troops have undergone the severest privations,
as well as great mortality from sickness and
disease. On the 13th February 1836, General Gaines,
havingarrived at Fort Brooke, reviewed his force,
which amounted to between eleven hundred and
twelve hundred men, and commenced his march
to relieve Fort King, at which post he arrived

FLORIDA WAR. 275
on the 2d February, without falling in with any
of the Indians. The general then made a detour
in pursuit of the enemy. On the 27th, when
the force was crossing the Ouithlacoochee River,
it was assailed by the Indians, who retired after
a skirmish of three-quarters of an hour, the loss
of the Americans being very trifling. On the
28th, when again fording the river, the Indians
made another attack, which was continued for
nearly four hours, and the Americans had to
lament the loss of Major Izard, who was killed,
and two other officers were wounded. On
the 29th, the Indians again attacked, with a
force of at least a thousand men, with a view of
forcing the American troops from the breastwork
which they had thrown up ; the Indians, after
about two hours' fighting, set fire to the high
grass ; but, unfortunately for them, the wind
suddenly changed, and, instead of burning out
the American troops, all their own concealed
positions were burnt up and exposed, and they
were compelled to retire. The loss on the Indian

276 FLORIDA WAR,
side was not known, but was supposed to be
heavy ; that on the part of the Americans
amounted to thirty-two killed and wounded.
General Gaines, finding that the Indians were so
near him, now despatched expresses for a supply
of ammunition, being resolved, if possible, to
bring them to a general action. The sufferings of
the American troops were very severe, and they
were killing their horses for subsistence ; but the
camp was secure, in consequence of the Indians
having burnt down aU the means of concealment
so necessary in their mode of warfare. Notwith
standing which, on the 1st, 2d, and 3d of March,
the camp was vigorously assailed. On the even
ing of the 5th, the Indian interpreter came in
from the Seminoles, stating that they wished to
hold a council, and did not want any more
fighting. On the 6th, a truce was held, when
Asseola and other chiefs made their appearance,
saying, that if the Americans would not cross
the river, they would remain on their own side
of it, and not commit any more ravages. This

FLORIDA WAR. 277
was, in fact, nothing but the original proposal
of the Indians, that they should remain upon
the land which had been assigned to them by the
treaty of Camp Moultrie. The reply of General
Gaines was, that he was not authorized to make a
treaty with them; their arms must be given
up, and they must remain on the other side of
the river, until the American Government sent
them away west of the Mississippi. While this
negociation was pending. General Clinch arrived
with the succour and reinforcements, much to
the joy of the American troops, who were half
starved. General Gaines, who had heard that
General Scott had been appointed to the com
mand in Florida, now resigned that authority to
General Clarke, and on the 11th, the troops
arrived at Fort Drane. It hardly need be ob
served, that the treating ¦with the Indians ended
in nothing. General Scott having assumed the
command, arrived at Fort Drane on the 13th
March 1836. He had had previously to contend
with heavy rains and almost impracticable roads.

278 FLORIDA WAR.
and was encumbered with a heavy baggage
train ; his whole force amounted to nearly 5,000
men. This he divided into a centre and two
wings, with a view to scour thewhole country,and
force the Indians from their retreats ; but in vain.
The Indians being on the flanks of each division,
occasional skirmishes took place ; but when the
troops arrived to where the Indianswere supposed
to be, not a man was to be seen, nor could they
discover the retreat of their families. Occasion
ally the Indians attacked the outposts with great
vigour, and were bravely repulsed; but the
whole army of 5,000 men, did not kill and cap
ture more than twenty Indians. As far as I can
judge, nothing could be better than the arrange
ments of General Scott, but the nature of the
country to which the Indians had retreated, ren
dered it almost impossible for troops to act.
The swamps extended over a great surface of
ground; here and there was an island on which
the Indians could remain; while to attack them,
the troops would have to wade up to their necks

FLORIDA WAR. 279
for miles, and as soon as they arrived the Indians
were gone.
It is not my intention to follow up all the
details of the petty warfare which has continued
to the present time. General Scott resigned the
command, and was succeeded by General Jessopp.
On the 20th October 1837, after nearly a year's
skirmishing, Asseola was persuaded to come in, to
a council. The flags of truce were hoisted by the
Americans, and Asseola, carrying a flag of truce
in his hand, and accompanied by other chiefs and
about 50 warriors, came in to talk. On their arri
val, they were surrounded by bayonets, and made
prisoners by the orders of the Federal Govern
ment, ¦ivho, despairing of subduing the Indians,
had recourse to this shameful breach of faith.
The proud spirit of Asseola could not endure
confinement : he died in prison. Other chiefs
were kidnapped in the same traitorous manner ;
but, severe as the loss must have been to the
Indians, it did not appear to discourage them.
The war was still carried on by those who were

280 FLORIDA WAR.
left, and, indeed, is still continued ; for the ranks
of the Indians are said to be filled up by run
away slaves, and some of the Creek Indians who
have not yet quitted Georgia. On the 25th
of December 1837, a severe battle was fought
between the Indians and the American troops,
at a spot between Pease Creek and the Big
Cjrpress Swamps ; on this occasion the Ameri
cans lost Colonels Thompson and Guntry, with
twenty-eight kUled, and one hundred and eleven
wounded. Since that I am not aware that any
important combat has taken place; but it is cer
tain that the Seminoles, notwithstanding the
loss of their leaders, still hold out and defy the
whole power of the United States.
It is asserted in the American papers that the
loss of Uves on the American side, from the enemy
and from disease, amounts to between two and
three thousand men, and that the expenses of the
war are now estimated at 30,000,000 of dollars.
How far these calculations may be correct I
cannot pretend to say, but it is notorious that a

FLORIDA WAR. 281
handful of Indians, estimated, at the commence
ment of the war, at about 1,900, have contended
against armies of four or five times their number,
commanded by gallant and able officers; that
this smaU band of Indians, notwithstanding
their losses from the weapons of the enemy and
their still greater losses from breach of faith,
have now for four years held out against the
American Govemment, and have contrived to
subsist during that period ; and that the retreat
of their wives and families has never been disco
vered, notwithstanding the Americans have a
friendly portion of the Seminoles acting with
them. Indeed, if we are to believe the American
statements, the war is almost as far from its con
clusion now as it was at its commencement.*
* Althotigh the Federal Government has set its face
against the Indians making war with each other (or
at least pretends so to do), it would appear by the fol
lowing notice, that, in their necessity, they have not
adhered to the following resolutions : —
" Extract of a Letter, dated
" FoBT Bbookb, Florida, June 14.
"The Cherokees and Choctaws are soon expected in

282 CAUSES OF THE
I have hastily narrated the causes and principal
events of the war, as they are little known in
England. The Americans, even if they expend
twice as much money, must persevere, until they
have extirpated every Indian, and settled the
territory with white people ; if they do not, the
Florida swamps will become the resort of run
away slaves, and the precedent of what can be
done, encourage a general rising of the slaves in
the adjoining States, who vdll only have to retire
to the banks of the Ouithlacoochee and defend
themselves. So fatal is the climate to the Euro
pean, that America even now will probably have
to sacrifice life and treasure to a much greater ex
tent before she obtains possession of the territory.
I shall conclude by quoting a portion of a
letter from the Genevese Traveller which ap
peared in the Times newspaper.
this country, when there will be a war of extermination
and no quarter shown. The affairs here are just the
same as two years ago. The war is no nearer ended.
But we do hope that the offer of ten dollars for each Se
minole scalp will be a great inducement for the Cherokees
and Choctaws to cut and slash among them."

FLORIDA WAR. 283
" The war was unrighteous in its commence
ment, and has been continued for years under
circumstances the most profligate. There has
not been a single campaign in which the army
has not reaped a plentiful harvest of mortifica
tion and disgrace. When brought into action
both officers and men fought valiantly, but the
character of the country, its deep morasses and
swamps, and the ignorance of the troops of
Indian warfare, have uniformly tended to pro
duce the most disastrous defeats.
There is not to be found on the page of his
tory, in any country, an instance of a scattered
remnant of a tribe, so few in number, defending
themselvesagainstthe assaults of a disciplinedand
numerous army, with the same heroism and trium
phant results with those of the Seminoles in resist
ing the American troops. In every campaign the
invaders have been at least ten to one against
the invaded. At no period have the Indians
been able to muster more than 700 or 800 war-

284 FLORIDA WAR.
riors, and it is doubtful whether they have
ever had more than half that number, while
the American army, when in the field, has
uniformly amounted to from 6,000 to 10,000
men."

285
REPLY TO
THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.

The art of reviewing may be compared to
French cookery; it has no medium — it must
either be first-rate or it is worth nothing : nay,
the comparison goes much further, as the at
tempt at either not only spoils the meat, but half
poisons the guests. The fact is, good reviewing
is of the highest order of Uterature, for a good
reviewer ought to be superior to the party whose
writings he reviews. Such men as Southey,
Croker, and Lockhart on the one side, Broug
ham, Fontblanque, and Rintoul on the other,
will always command respect in their vocations,
however much they may be influenced by poli
tical feelings, or however little you may coin
cide with them in opinion. But, passing over
these, and three or four more cordons bleus,
what are reviewers in general .'' men of a degree
of talent below that of the author whose works

283 REPLY TO THE
they presume to decide upon ; the major por
tion of whom, having failed as authors, are
possessed with but one feeling in their dis
appointment, which is to drag others down to
their own debased level. To effect this, you
have malevolence substituted for wit, and high-
sounding words for sense ; every paltry ad
vantage is taken that can be derived from an
intentional misrepresentation of your meaning,
and (what is the great secret of all) from unfair
quotations of one or two lines, carefully omitting
the context — an act of unpardonable dishonesty
towards the author, and but too often successful
in misleading the reader of the Review. By
acting upon this last-mentioned system, there is
no book, whatever its merits may be, which
cannot be misrepresented to the pubUc : a
work espousing atheism may be made to
appear wholly moral ; or, the Holy Scriptures
themselves condejmned as licentious and in
decent. If such reviewing is fair, a jury
may, upon a similar principle, decide upon a
case by the evidence in favour of the pro-

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 287
secution ; and beauty or deformity in architec
ture be pronounced upon by the examination
of a few bricks taken out from different portions
of a building.
That, latterly, the public have been more inclined
to judge forthemselves, than to pin theirfaith upon
reviews, is certain ; nevertheless, when what is
termed a "slashing article " upon a popular work
makes its appearance, the pubUc are too apt to re
ceive it without scrutiny. Satisfied with the ge
neral effect, as with that produced in a theatrical
representation, they do not bear in mind that that
which has the appearance of gold, would prove
upon examination to be nothing more than tinsel.
Were all reviewers to be reviewed by authors
as well as aU authors by reviewers, the authors
would have the best of it in the melee. Again,
were reviewers obliged to put their names to
their several articles, there would be a great dif
ference in their style; but, secure in their in
cognito from the disgrace of exposure, they
make no scruple to assert what they well know
to be false, and, coward-like, to assail those who

288 REPLY TO THE
have seldom an opportunity, whatever may be
their power, to defend themselves. Never, per
haps, was there a better proof of the truth of
the foregoing observations than is afforded by
the article in the Edinburgh Review upon the
first portion of my work on America ; and as I
have some pages to spare, I shall now take the
unusual liberty of reviewing the Reviewer.
First, let me introduce to the public the writer
of the article — Miss Harriet Martineau. My
readers may inquire how I can so positively
make this assertion ? I reply that it is owing to
my " craft." A person who has long dealt in
pictures will, without hesitation, tell you the
name of the painter of any given work : a
shepherd with a flock of three or four hundred
sheep under his charge, ¦will know every one
of them individually, although to people in
general, one sheep is but the counterpart of
the others. Thus, there are little varieties
of style, manner, and handling of the pen,
which become evident to practised writers,
although they are not always so to readers. But

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 289
even if these peculiarities were not sufficient, the
manner in which the article is managed (the
remarks of Miss Martineau upon the merits of
Miss Martineau) in my mind establishes to con
viction, that the major portion of the article, if
not the whole, has proceeded from her pen. This
is a matter of no consequence, and I only men
tion it that my readers may understand why
Miss Martineau, who forms so prominent a
feature in the Edinburgh article, wiU also occa
sionally appear in mine. My reply, however, is
not addressed to her, but to the Edinburgh
Reviewer. I have no doubt the Reviewer will most
positively deny that Miss Martineau had any
thing to do "with the Review of my work :
that of course. With his permission, I will
relate a little anecdote. " When the Royal
George went down at Spithead, an old gen
tleman, who had a son on board, was bewail
ing his loss. His friends came to console him.
— ' I thought,' observed one of them, ' that
VOL. III. o

290 REPLY TO THE
you had received a letter .?' — ' Yes,' replied the
old gentleman, ' but it was from Jack himself
— ' WeU, what more would you have ?' — ' Ah,'
replied the old gentleman, ' had it been from the
captain, or from one of his messmates, or, in
deed, from anybody else, it would have consoled
me ; but Jack, — he is such an incorrigible liar,
that his very assertion that he is safe, convinces
me that he has gone to the bottom.'"
Now my opinion of the veracity of the Edin
burgh Review may be estimated by the above
anecdote; the very circumstance of its denial
would, with me, be sufficient to establish the
fact. But to proceed.
The Review has pronounced the first portion
of my work to be light and trifling, and full of
errors ; it asserts that I have been hoaxed by
the Americans ; that I am incapable of sound
reasoning ; cannot estimate human nature ; and,
finally, requests as a favour that I will write no
more. Such are the general heads of the Review.
Now here we have a strange inconsistency, for

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 291
why should the Edinburgh Review, if the work
be really what he asserts it to be, " light and
trifling," &c., waste so much powder and shot
upon a tomtit ? Why has he dedicated twenty-
seven pages of ponderous verbosity to so light
and trifling a work .' How seldom is it that
the pages of the Quarterly or Edinburgh con
descend to notice even the very best of light
literature ! Do they not, in their majesty, con
sider it infra dig. to review such works, and
have not two or three pages bestowed upon them
been considered as an immense favour on their
part, and a high compliment to the authors ?
Notwithstanding which, we have here twenty-
seven pages of virulent attack upon my light
and trifling work. Does not the Edinburgh re
viewer at once shew that the work is not light
and trifling.'' does he not contradict his own asser
tions, by the labour and space bestowed upon
it.'' nay, more, is it not strange that he should
think it necessary to take the unfair advantage
of reviewing a work before it is half finished,
o2

292 REPLY TO THE
and pounce upon the first portion, with the hopes
of neutralizing the effects which he evidently
dreads from the second.
I will answer the question for him. He
indulges in his precipitate and unmeasured at
tacks, because he feels that the work is written
in a style that will induce every one to read it ;
because he feels assured that the occasional, and
apparently careless hits at democracy, are only
preparatory to others more severe, and that these
will come out in the second part, which wiU be
read with as much avidity as the first. He per
ceives the drift of the work ; he feels that it has
been purposely made amusing, and that it will
be more injurious to the cause which the
Edinburgh Review upholds than a more la
boured treatise ; that those who would not look
at a more serious work will read this, and that
the opinions it contains will be widely dissemi
nated, and impressed without the readers being
aware of it ; moreover, that it will descend to a
class of readers who have hitherto been unin-

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 293
formed upon the subject : in short, he appre
hends the greater da'nger to his cause from the
work having, as I have said, been made amusing,
and from its being in appearance, although not
in reality, " light and trifling."
I candidly acknowledge that the Reviewer is y
right in his supposition: my great object has been
to do serious injury to the cause of democracy.
To effect this, it was necessary that I should
write a book which should be universaUy read
— not merely by the highly educated portion of
the community, for they are able to judge for
themselves ; but read by every tradesman and
mechanic; pored over even by milliners' girls, and
boys behind the counter, and thumbed to pieces
in every petty circulating library. I wrote the
work with this object, and I wrote accordingly.
Light and trifling as it may appear to be, every
page of it (as I have stated) has been the subject
of examination and deliberation : it has given
me more trouble than any work I ever wrote ;

294 REPLY TO THE
and, my labour having been so far crowned
with success, I trust that I shall have " done the
State some service."* The review in the
Edinburgh will neither defeat nor obstruct my
purpose, as that publication circulates chiefly
among those classes who have already formed
their opinions ; and I have this advantage over
it, that, as for one that reads the Edinburgh Re
view, fifty will read my work, so will fifty read
my reply who will never trouble themselves
about the article in the Edinburgh Review.
And now let us enter a little into detail. The
Reviewer finds great fault with my introduction,
as being wholly irrevelant to the Diary which
follows it. I admit, that if it were an introduc
tion to the Diary alone, there then would be some
* A very acute reviewer has observed of my first
portion, that there always appeared as if there was some
thing left behind and not told. He was right ; I have
entered into every subject just as deeply as I dared to
venture, without wearying the class of readers for
whom, although not avowedly, yet in reality, the work
has chiefly been written. The second portion will there
fore be found almost as light and trifling as the first.

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 295
justice in his remark. But such is not the case :
an introduction is, I believe, generally under
stood to refer to the whole of the work, not a
portion of it ; and now that the work is complete,
I leave it to the public to decide whether the
introduction is suitable or not, as bearing upon
the whole. I believe, also, it is the general
custom to place an introduction at the com
mencement of a work; I never heard of one being
introduced into the middle or at the end of it.
The fault, therefore, of its imputed irrelevancy is
not mine : it is the Reviewer's, who has thought
proper to review the work before it was com
plete. He quotes me, as saying, " Capt. Mar-
ryat's object was to examine and ascertain
what were the effects of a democratic form of
government upon a people which, with all its
foreign admixture, may still be considered as
English ,•" and then, without waiting till I have
completed my task, he says, that the present
work " has nothing, or next to nothing, to
do with such an avowal." Whether such an

296 REPLY TO THE
assertion has any thing to do with the work
now that it is completed, I leave the public
to decide. The Reviewer has no excuse for
this illiberal conduct, for I have said, in my In
troduction, " In the arrangement of this work,
I have considered it advisable to present to the
reader first, those portions of my Diary which
may be interesting, and in which are recorded
traits and incidents which will bear strongly
upon the commentaries I shall subsequently
make ;" notwithstanding which the reviewer has
the mendacity to assert that, " not until the last
paragraph of the last volume, does he learn for
the first time that the work is not complete." I
¦will be content with quoting his own words
against him — " An habitual story teller prefers
invention to description."
The next instance of the Reviewer's dishonesty
is, his quoting a portion of a paragraph and re
jecting the context. He quotes, " I had not
been three weeks in the country before I decided
upon accepting no more invitations, charily as

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 297
they were made," and upon this quotation he
founds an argument that, as I did not enter into
society, I could of course have no means of
gaining any knowledge of American character
or the American institutions. Now, if the re
viewer had had the common honesty to finish the
paragraph, the reason why I refused the invita
tions would have been apparent ; " because I
found that, although invited, my presence was a
restraint upon the company, and every one was
afraid to speak." Perhaps the sagacity of the
Reviewer wUl explain what information I was
Ukely to gain from people who would not open
their mouths. Had he any knowledge of the
Americans, he would admit that they never will
venture to give their opinions in the presence of
each other ; it was not that they were afraid of
me, but of each other, as M, Tocqueville has
very truly pointed out in his work. Moreover,
I have now, for the first time, to learn that tne
best way of arriving at the truth is to meet
o 3

298 REPLY TO THE
people who are on their guard, and whose object
is to deceive.
There is a malevolent feeling in the assertion,
that I have treated all other previous writers
on America with contempt ; and here again he
intentionally quotes falsely. My words are
" the majority of those who have preceded me."
As nearly as I can reckon, there have been about
fifty works published on America, out of which
there are not ten which deserve attention ; and
the ample quotations I have made from M.
Tocqueville, Captain Hamilton, and others, in
corroboration of my own opinions, fully evince
the respect I have for their writings. In fact,
the whole article is a tissue of falsehood and mis
representation, and so weak that hardly one of
its positions is tenable. Can any thing be more
absurd, or more shallow, than to quote the
Mississippi scheme and Mr. Law as a proof
that the French are, as well as the English and
Americans, a speculative nation : one solitary

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 299
instance of a portion of the French having,
about sixty or seventy years ago, been induced
to embark their capital, is brought forward,
while the abject supineness of the French popu
lation of Lower Canada, in juxta-position with
the energy and enterprize of the Americans, has
for half a century stared us in the face !
The Reviewer has the. kindness repeatedly to
inform me that I have been hoaxed by the Ame
ricans, and, most unfortunately for himself, he
has brought forward the " Original Draft of the
Declaration of Independence" as a proof of it.
That he would be very glad to prove it to be a
hoax, I believe ; as it is a sad discovery, and one
which the American democrats should have kept
secret. That the Americans did hoax Miss
Martineau, and that they would have hoaxed
me if they could, I admit, but even the Reviewer
must acknowledge that they would not hoax
themselves. Now it so happens, that this docu
ment, which has not long been discovered, is in
the splendid public library of Philadelphia :

300 REPLY TO THE
it has been carefully preserved in a double plate-
glass frame, so as to be read on both sides with
out handling ; it is expensively mounted, and
shewn to every visitor as a great curiosity, as it
certainly is, the authenticity of it being unde
niable, and acknowledged by the Americans.
The paragraph which was expunged is verbatim
as I gave it — a paragraph which affords more
proof, if further proof were necessary, that
Jefferson was one of the most unprincipled men
who ever existed. The Reviewer recommends
my perusal of the works of this "great and good
man^' as Miss Martineau calls him. I suspect
tliat I have read more of Mr. Jefferson and
other American authors than ever the Reviewer
has ; and I consider the writings of this Father
of Democracy, opposed to his private life, to be
a remarkable type of democracy in theory and in
practice. To borrow a term from the Reviewer,
those writings are " brave words' to proceed
from an infidel, who proved his ardent love of
liberty by allowing his own children to be put

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 301
up to auction at his death, and wear away their
existence in misery and bondage. I cannot help
here observing a trifling inconsistency on the
part of the Reviewer. After lauding the Father
of Democracy, and recommending me to read
his works ; after sneering at our aristocracy by
observing, " that no kind of virtue that we have
heard of can suffer much from the loss of a
court and of an hereditary nobility ;" after, in
short, defending and upholding democracy in
every page, all of a sudden the Reviewer turns
round and says, " We are no general ad
mirers of democracy." Indeed ! if not gene
ral, you certainly appear to be particular
admirers ; and if neither general nor particular,
may I inquire what the Edinburgh Review has
been frothing, fizzing, hissing, and bubbling
about, like a tea-kettle in a passion, for these
last twenty years .''
Never was there a more convincing proof of
the boldness and arrogance which Reviewers
(trusting to the irresponsibility arising from their

302 REPLY TO THE
concealment) assume, than is afforded by the
following passage in the Edinburgh article : —
" An ardent pursuit of wealth and deep reli
gious feelings go very well together.''''
It is not for me to reply to the Reviewer in this
instance ; I must hand him over to higher autho
rity. I must oppose the everlasting doctrines
of inspiration to the cold, heartless, and arrogant
philosophy of an Edinburgh reviewer. In vain
are we again and again forewarned in the Scrip
tures against tbe love of money ; in vain has our
Saviour denounced it ; in vain have the apostles
followed in his steps. Let the Reviewer, if he
ever has looked into the Bible, refer to the
epistles to the Colossians and to the Ephesians.
St. Paul declares that covetousness is idolatry.
Hear also what he sayeth to Timothy : —
" But they that wish to be rich faU into
temptation and a snare, and into many
fooUsh and hurtful lusts, which drown men in
destruction and perdition." " For the love of
money is the root of all evil,""

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 303
Our Divine Master is even more explicit, for
he says — " No servant can serve two masters ;
for either he will hate the one, and love the
other; or else he will hold to the one, and
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and
Mammcn."" Thus says our Lord — now hear
the Edinburgh Reviewer. — " An ardent pursuit
of wealth and deep religious feelings go very
well together."
Here the Edinburgh Reviewer has placed him
self on the horns of a dilemma. The Holy Writ
ings assert most positively and repeatedly one
thing, while he asserts another. If, therefore,
he acknowledge the Scriptures, he must at the
same time acknowledge his own grevious error,
and, I may add, his deep sin : if, on the con
trary, he still hold to his own opinion, hath he
not denied his faith, and is he not worse than
an infidel ?
The Reviewer sneers at my observation, that
"Washington had no power to control the na
ture of man." It may be, as he observes, a very

304 REPLY TO THE
simple remark ; but, at all events, it has one
advantage over his own, which is, that it is a
very true one. Miss Martineau makes an ob
servation in her book, which is quite as great a
truism as mine ; for she also says that " Hu
man nature is the same every where."
How far I have succeeded in my analysis of
human nature it is not for me to decide ; but
that it is the same every where I will now ven
ture to support by something more than asser
tion on the part of Miss Martineau.
When I was at Boston, in company with
some of the young ladies, the conversation
turned upon Miss Martineau, with whom they
stated that they had been intimate. NaturaUy
anxious to know more of so celebrated a per
sonage, I asked many questions. I was told
much to interest me, and, among other little
anecdotes, they said that Miss Martineau used
to sit down surrounded by the young ladies,
and amuse them with aU the histories of her
former loves. She would detail to them " how

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 305
Jack sighed and squeezed her hand ; how Tom
went down on his knees; how Dick swore and
Sam vowed ; and how — she was still Miss Mar
tineau." And thus would she narrate and they
listen until the sun went down, and the fire
fly danced, while the frogs lifted up their voices
in full concert.
And I said to myself, " Who would have
supposed that this Solon in petticoats would
ever have dwelt upon her former days of enthu
siasm and hope, or have cherished the remini
scences of love.'' How true it is that human
nature is the same every where."
Once more : —
I was conversing with a lady at New York,
who informed me that she had seen a letter from
Miss M., written to a friend of her's, after her
return to England, in which Miss M. declared
that her door was so besieged with the carriages
of the nobility, that it was quite uncomfortable,
and that she hardly knew what to do.
Thinks I to myself I recollect an old story.

306 REPLY TO THE
" Oh ! Grandmother," cried Tom, running in,
out of breath, " there's at least a thousand cats
in our garden."—" No, no, Tom," quickly re
plied, the old lady; "not a thousand, Tom."
— " Well I'm sure there's five hundred." — " No,
nor five hundred," replied the old lady, not
taking her eyes off her knitting." — " Well, then,
grandmother, I'm sure there's fifty.'' — " I don't
think there are fifty, Tom."— "Well, at aU
events, there's our cat and another," — "Ah!
Tom," replied the old lady, " that may be."
I believe that the carriage of Lord Brougham
is occasionally to be seen at the door of Miss
Martineau. But when I heard this I was pleased, for I
said to myself, " So, then, this champion of demo
cracy, this scorner of rank and title, is flattered
by the carriages of the nobility crowding at her
door;" and, again I said to myself, " human
nature is the same every where.''''
But the Reviewer, in his virulence, has not
been satisfied with attacking me ; he has

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 307
thought it necessary to libel the whole pro
fession to which I have the honour to belong.
He has had the foUy and impertinence to
make the following remark : " No landsmen
can have been on board of a ship a week, with
out coming to the conclusion that a sensible
house dog is more like the people he has left at
home than most of his new companions, and that
it (the house dog) would be nearly as capable
of solving problems on national character."
Indeed ! !
Is it possible that the Reviewer should still
remain the dupe of such a vulgar error ? That
at one time it was the custom to send to sea the
fool of the family, is certain, and had the Re
viewer flourished in those days, he would pro
bably have been the one devoted to the service —
but tempora mutantur. Is the Reviewer aware
that one-half, and certainly the most successful
half, of EngUsh diplomacy, is now carried on
by the admirals and captains, not only in the
Mediterranean, but all over the world. Is he

308 REPLY TO THE
aware that when the Foreign Office wishes to do
its work cheaply and well, it demands a vessel
from the Admiralty, which is made over to that
office, and is set down as employed on " par
ticular service :" that during that service the
captain acts from instructions given by the
Foreign Office alone, and has his cabin piled
with voluminous documents ; and that, like the
unpaid magistracy of England, we sailors do all
the best of the work, and have nothing but our
trquble for our pains. Nay, even the humble
individual who pens this remonstrance was for
months on this very service, and, when it was
completed, the Foreign Office expressed to the
Admiralty its satisfaction at his conduct during
his short diplomatic career.
House dogs! Hear this, ye public of England !
A sensible house dog is to be preferred to St.
Vincent, Nelson, CoUingwood, Exmouth, and
all those great men who have aided their coun
try as much with their pen as with their sword ;
as much by their acuteness and firmness in

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 309
diplomacy, as by their courage and conduct in
action. Now, Mr. Reviewer, don't you feel a little
ashamed of yourself? Would you really Uke
to give up your name as the author of this
bare-faced libel? Would you like openly to
assert that such is your opinion, and that you
wiU stand by it ?
No Uberal, high-minded man, whatever his
poUtics may have been, has ever refused to do
justice to a service which has been the bulwark
of England. Lord Brougham has lately pub
lished a work containing the lives of celebrated
persons in the reign of George III. ; I will
just quote a few passages from his life of Lord
St. Vincent.
" The present sketches would be imperfect if
Lord St. Vincent were passed over in silence, for
he was almost as distinguished among the states
men, as the warriors of the age.
" A statesman of profound views and of pene-

310 REPLY TO THE
tration, hardly equalled by any other man of
his time.
" But the consummate vigour and wisdom of
his proceedings during the dreadful period of
\he munity, are no less a theme of wonder and
of praise.
" When the Addington ministry was formed,
he was placed at the head of the Admiralty;
and now shone forth in all its lustre that great
capacity for affairs with which he was endowed
by nature, and which ample experience of men,.
habits of command, and an extended life of deep
reflection, had matured.
" The capacity of a statesman and the valour
of the hero, outshone by the magnanimous
heart which beats only to the measures of gene
rosity and justice."
Here, again, the Reviewer is in what the
Yankees would call an "everlasting awkward
fix ;" for he contradicts Lord Brougham, the
patron and sole supporter of his fast-waning

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 311
review, without the aid of whose admirable pen,
it would long ago have gone to its proper place.
He must now either admit that he is himself
wrong, or that it is Lord Brougham who is in
wror. He has but to choose.
I have but one more remark to make upon
the review itself. At the close of it, the Re
viewer observes, that my remarks upon the
marine are interesting and useful. How does
he know ? Upon his own argument, if we
house dogs are not competent upon shore
matters, he must be equally ignorant of any
thing connected with our profession ; and I
therefore consider it a piece of unpardonable
presumption on the part of a land lubber like
him to offer any opinion on the subject.
The Reviewer, whoever it may be, has proved
himself wholly incompetent to his task ; he has at
tacked, but has yet to leam the art of parrying,
as has been proved by his laying himself so open.
His blows have been stopped, and, without
giving, he has received severe punishment. I am

312 REPLY TO THE
the more surprised at this, as I reaUy considered
that there was a certain tact in the Edinburgh
Review, which enabled it to know where to di
rect the blow, so as to make it tell ; a species of
professional knowledge proper to executioners,
reviewers, and cab-drivers, and which may be
summed up in the following axiom : " The
great art of flogging is, to know where to find
a bit of raw."
So little have I felt the castigation intended,
that I have had some compunction in adminis
tering this discipline to the Reviewer in return.
Surely the Edinburgh Review can put a better
head on, when it takes notice of this second
portion of my work ? I will give it an anec
dote. A lady of my acquaintance was blessed with
a son, then about three years old. She was very
indulgent, and he was very much spoiled. At
last he became so unmanageable that she felt
it was her imperative duty to correct him. She
would as soon have cut off her right arm, but

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 313
that would not have mended the matter, nor the
child. So one day, when the young gentleman
had been more than usually uproarious, she
pulled up his petticoats and administered what
she considered a most severe infiiction . Having
so done, with a palpitating heart she sat down
to recover herself, miserable that she had been
compelled to punish, but attempting to console
herself with the reflection that she had done her
duty. What then was her surprise to have her
reveries interrupted by the young urchin, who
(appearing only to have been tickled,) came up
to her, and laying down his head on lier lap,
pulled up his coats, and cried, " More whip
ping, Ma : please, more whipping." So weak
has been the wrist, whether it be feminine or
not, that has applied the punishment, that
I also feel inclined to exclaim with the child,
" IMore whipping, (Miss Martineau .'') please,
more whipping."
The Reviewer has pronounced that " no
author is cleverer than his works." If no
VOL. III. P

314 REPLY TO THE
author be cleverer than his works, it is equally
certain that no reviewer is cleverer than his
review. Does the Reviewer recollect the fable of
the jackass who put on the Uon's skin ? Why
did he not take warning from the fabled folly
of his ancestor and hold his tongue ? He might
still have walked about and have been supposed
to be a Reviewer.
He asserts that I am not capable of serious
reflection : he is mistaken. I have seldom cut
the leaves of the Edinburgh, having been
satisfied with looking at its outside, and
thinking how very appropriate its colours of
blue and yellow were to the opinions which it
advocates. But at times I have been more serious.
I have communed with myself as it lay before
me, and I have mentally exclaimed : — Here is a
work written by men whom the Almighty has
endowed with talents, and who will, if there
be truth in Scripture, have to answer for the
talents committed to their keeping. — ^yet these
men, like madmen, throw about fire, and cry it is

EDINBURGH REVIEW. 316
only in sport; they uphold doctrines as pernicious
as, unfortunately, they are popular ; disseminate
error under the most specious guise ; wage war
against the happiness of their fellow-creatures,
unhinging society, breeding discontent, wav
ing the banner of infidelity and rebellion, and
inviting to anarchy and bloodshed. To such
prostitution of talent to this work of the
devil, they are stimulated by their pride and
their desire of gain .' And I have surmised that
hereafter they will have their reward; but,
remembering that we are forbid to judge, I
have checked my thoughts as they have turned
upon what might hereafter be the portion
below of — an Edinburgh Reviewer.

f2

APPENDIX,

Discourse on the Evidences of the American
Indians being the Descendants of the Lost
Tribes of Israel.

Those who study the Scriptures, either as a mat
ter of duty or pleasure — who seek in them divine
revelations, or search for the records of history, can
not be ignorant of the fact that the Je^wish nation, at
an early period, was divided into twelve tribes, and
occupied their ancient heritage under geographical
divisions, during the most splendid periods under
the kingdoms of Judah and of Israel.
Their early history — the rise, progress, and do^wn-
fall of the nation — the proud distinction of being the
chosen people — ^their laws, government, and wars —
their sovereigns, judges, and temples — ^their suffer
ings, dispersions, and the various prophecies con
cerning this ancient and extraordinary people, can
not be unknown to you all. For their histoiy is

318 APPENDIX.
the foundation of religion, their vicissitudes the
result of prophecy, their restoration the fulfilment of
that great promise made to the Patriarch Abraham,
almost I may say in the infancy of nature.
It is also known to you that the Jewish nation
was finally overpowered, and nine and a half of the
tribes were carried captives to Samaria ; two and a
half, to -wit : Judah, Benjamin, and half Manassah,
remained in Judea or in the transjordani cities.
The question before us for consideration is, what
has become of the missing or dispersed tribes — to
what quarter of the world did they direct their foot
steps, and what are the evidences of their existence
at this day ?
An earthquake may shake and overtum the foun
dations of a city — the avalanche may overwhelm the
hamlet — and the , crater of a volcano may pour its
lava over fertile plains and populous ¦villages — ^but a
whole nation cannot vanish from the sight of the
world, ¦without leaving some traces of its existence,
some marks of habits and customs.
It is a singular fact that history is exceedingly
confused, or rather, I may say, dark, respecting the
ultimate dispersion of the tribes among the cities of
the Medes. The last notice we have of them is
from the second Book of Esdras, which runs thus :
" Whereas thou sawest another peaceable multi
tude : these are the ten tribes which were carried
away prisoners out of their own land in the time of
Osea, whom Salmanazar, king of Assyria, led away
captive, and he carried them over the waters, so they
came unto another land;

APPENDIX. 319
" They took this counsel among themselves that
they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and
go into a further country wherein never mankind
dwelt, that they might there keep theh statutes,
which they never kept in their o^wn land (Assyria),
and there was a great way to go, namely, a year and
a half." Esdr^, however, has been deemed apochryphal.
Much has been said concerning the doubtful charac
ter of that -writer. He wrote in the first century of
the Christian church, and Tertullian, St. Ereneus,
Clemens Alexandrius, Pico di Mirandola, and many
learned and pious men, had great confidence in his
¦writings. Part of them have been adopted by Pro
testants, and aU. considered orthodox by Catholics.
With all his old Je^wish attachments to the prophe
cies and traditions, Esdras was nevertheless a convert
to Christianity. He was not an inspired vmter or
a prophet, although he assumed to be one, and fol
lowed the course as well as the manner of Daniel.
The Book of Esdras, however, is of great antiquity,
and as an historical record is doubtless entitled to
great respect.
The precise number which left Babylon and other
cities, and took to the desert, cannot be accurately
kno-wn; but they were exceedingly numerous, for
the edict of Ahasherus, which decreed their destruc
tion, embraced 127 pro^vinces, and reached from
Ethiopia to the Indies. Benjamin of Tudela, who
travelled in the eleventh century through Persia,
mentions that in some of the provinces, at the time
of that decree, the Jews occupied forty cities, ' two

320 APPENDIX.
hundred boroughs, one hundred castles, which con
tained 300,000 people. I incHne to the opinion that
300,000 of the tribes left Persia.
There is no doubt that, in the march from the
Euphrates to the north-east coast of Asia, many of
the tribes hesitated in pursuing the journey : some
remained in Tartary, many went into China. Alverez
states in his History of China, that the Jews had been
Hving in that kingdom for more than six hundred
years. He might with great probability have said
1,600 years. He speaks of their being very numerous
in some of the provinces, and havmg synagogues in
many of the great cities, especially in thatof Hinan and
in its metropolis Kai-tong-fu, where he represents them
to have a magnificent place of worship, and a repository
for the Holy Volume, adorned with richly em
broidered curtains, in which they preserve an ancient
Hebrew manuscript roll.
They know but Httle of the Mosaic law, and only
repeat the names of David, Abraham, Isaiah, and
Jacob. In a Hebrew letter written by the Jews of
Cochin-Chma to their brethren at Amsterdam, they
give as the date of their retiring into India, the pe
riod when the Romans conquered the Holy Land.
It is clearly evident, therefore, that the tribes, in
their progress to a new and undiscovered country,
left many of their numbers in China and Tartary,
and finally reached the Straits of Behring, where no
difficulty prevented theh crossing to the north-west
coast of America, a distance less than thirty miles,
interspersed with the Copper Islands, probably frozen
over ; and reaching our contment, spread themselves
in the course of two thousand years to Cape Horn,

APPENDIX. 321
the more hardy keeping to the north, to Labrador,
Hudson's Bay, and Greenland ; the more cultivated
fixing their residence in the beautiful cUmate and
rich possessions of Central America, Mexico, and
Peru. But it may here be asked, could the scattered
remnants of Israel have had the courage to penetrate
through unkno^wn regions, and encounter the hard
ships and privations of that inhospitable country ?
Could they have had the fortitude, the decision, the
power, to venture on a dreary pilgrimage of eighteen
months, the time mentioned by Esdras as the period
of their journey .'' Could they not ? What obstacles
had hitherto impeded their progress, that had broken
down their energies, or impaired theu: constancy and.
fideHty ?
They knew that their brethren had severed the
chains of Egyptian bondage ; had crossed in safety
the arm of the Red Sea ; had sojourned for years in
the ¦wilderness; had encamped near Mount Sinai,.
and had possessed themselves of the Holy Land.
They remembered the kingdoms of Judah and
Israel in aU their glory; they had -witnessed the
erection and destruction of their Temple ; they had
fought and conquered with the Medes, the Assyrians,
the Persians, the Gh-eeks, and the Romans. They
had encountered sufferings upon sufferings unmoved ;
had bowed their necks submissively to the yoke.
Kings, conquerors, nations. Christians, Mahome
tans, and Heathens, all had united in the design pf
aestroying the nation; but they never despaired
they knew they were the elect and chosen ol the
3p

322 APPENDIX.
Lord. The oath, that He never would abandon his
peojile, had been fulfilled 3,500 years, and, therefore,
with the cloud by day and the piUar of fire by night,
they abandoned the Heathens and the Persian terri
tory, passed the confines of Tartary and China, and,
no doubt, through great sufferings, reached the
north-eastern coast of Asia, and came in sight of
that continent, wherein, as they had reason to be-
Heve, " mankind never before had dwelt."
On the discovery of America by Columbus, and the
discoveries subsequent to his time, various tribes of
Indians or savages were found to inhabit this our
continent, whose origin was unkno^wn.
It is, perhaps, difficult for the human mind to de
cide on the character and condition of an extreme
savage state. Wecan readily believe that children aban
doned in infancy in a savage country, and surviving
this abandonment, to grow up in a state of nature,
Uring- on herbs and fruits, and sustaining existence
as other wild animals, would be stupid, •without lan
guage, ¦without intellect, and with no greater instinct
than that which governs the brute creation. We
can conceive nothing reduced to a more savage con
dition ; with cannibal propensities, an ungovernable
ferocity, or a timid apprehension, there can be but a
Hnk that separates them from other classes of ani
mal creation. So ¦with herds of men in a savage
state, Hke herds of buffalo or ¦wild horses on our
prairies, they are kept together by sounds common
amongst themselves, and are utterly unacquainted
with the landmarks of ciriHzation.
This, however, was not the condition of the Ame-

APPENDIX. 323
rican Indians when first discovered. They were a
singular race of men, ¦with enlarged riews of Hfe, re
Ugion, courage, constancy, humanity, policy, elo
quence, love of their families ; with a proud and gal
lant bearing, fierce in war, and, Uke the ancients,
relentless in victory. Their hospitaUty might be
quoted as examples among the most liberal of the
present day. These were not ¦wUd men — ^these were
a dilFerent class from those found on the Sandvrich
and Feegee Islands. The red men of America, bear
ing as they do the strongest marks of Asiatic origin,
have, for more than two thousand years (and dirided
as they are in upwards of three hundred different
nations) been remarkable for their inteUectual supe
riority, their bravery in war, their good faith in peace,
and aU the simpUcity and rirtues of their patriarchal
fathers, until ciriHzation, as it is caUed, had rendered
them familiar with aU the vices which distinguish
the present era, -without being able to enforce any of
the rirtues wliich are the boast of our present en
Ughtened times.
It is, however, in the reUgious beUef and ceremo
nies of the Indians that I propose showing some of
the eridences of their being, as it is beUeved, the
descendants of the dispersed tribes. The opinion is
founded —
1st. In their beUef in one God.
2d. In the computation of time by their ceremo
nies of the new moon.
3d. In their dirisions of the year in four seasons,
answering to the Jewish festivals of the feast of

324 APPENDIX.
flowers, the day of atonement, tht, feast of the taber
nacle, and other religious holidays.
4th. In the erection of a temple after the manner
of our temple, and having an ark of the covenant,
and also the erection of altars.
Sth. By the divisions of the nation into tribes,
with a chief, or grand sachem at their head.
6th. By their laws of sacrifices, ablutions, mar
riages ; ceremonies in war and peace, the prohibitions
of eating certain things, fuUy carrying out the Mo
saic institutions ; — ^by their traditions, history, cha
racter, appearance, affinity of their language to the
Hebrew, and finally, by that everlasting covenant of
heirship exhibited in a perpetual transmission of its
seal in their flesh.
If I shall be able to satisfy your doubts and curio
sity on these points, you -wUl certainly rejoice with
me in discovering that the dispersed of the chosen
people are not the lost ones — that the promises held
out to them have been thus far reaHsed, and that aU
the prophecies relative to their future destination wUl
in due time be strictly fulfilled.
It has been the general impression, as before
mentioned, that great resemblance existed between
some of the reUgious rites of the Jews, and the pecu
Har ceremonies of the Indians ; and the belief in one
Great Spirit has tended to strengthen the impression ;
yet this mere resemblance only extended so far as to
admit of the belief, that they possibly may have des
cended from the dispersed tribes, or may have been
of Tartar or Malay origin.

APPENDIX, 325
It was, however, a vague and unsatisfactory sus
picion, which, ha^ving no tangible evidence, has been
rejected, or thrown aside as a mere supposition. All
the missionaries and traveUers among the Indian
tribes since the discovery of America — ^Adair, Heck-
welder, Charliveux, M'Kenzie, Bartram, Beltrami,
Smith, Penn, Mrs. Simon, who has ¦written a very
interesting work on this subject, &c., have expressed
opinions in favour of their being of Je^wish origin —
the difficulty, however, under which they aU laboured
was simply this ; they were famUiar with the reU
gious rites, ceremonies, traditions, and beUef of the
Indians, but they were not sufficiently conversant
with the Je^wish rites and ceremonies to show the
analogy. It is precisely this link in the chain of
eridence that I propose to supply.
It has been said that the Indians, beUering in one
great Spirit and Fountain of Life, Uke the Jews,
does not prove their descent from the missing tribes,
because in a savage state their very ignorance and
superstition lead them to confide in the works of
some divine superior being. But savages are apt to
be idolaters, and personate the deity by some carved
figure or image to whom they pay their adoration, and
not, like the Indians, having a clear and definite idea
of one great Ruler of the universe, one great Spirit,
whose attributes are as weU known to them as to us.
But if the continued unerring worship of one God
like the Jews prove nothmg, where did they acquire
the same Hebrew name and appeUation of that deity ?
If tradition had not handed do^WTi to them the ineffa-

326 APPENDIX.
ble name as also preserved by the Jews, how did they
acquire it in a wilderness where the word of the
Lord was never kno'wn ?
Adair, in whom I repose great confidence, and
who resided fort'y years among them, in his work
pubHshed in 1775, says, " The ancient heathens
worshipped a pluraUty of gods, but these Indians
pay their devoirs to Lo-ak (Light) Ish-ta-hoola-aba,
distinctly Hebrew, which means the great supreme
beneficent holy Spirit of Fire who resides above."
" They are," says Adair, " utter strangers to all
the gestures practised by the Pagans in their reUgi
ous rites — they kiss no idols, nor would they kiss their
hands in tokens of reverence or ¦wUUng obedience."
" These tribes," says Adair, " so far from being
Atheists, use the great and readful name of God, which
describes his divine essence, and by which he mani
fested himself to Moses ! and are firmly persuaded
that they now Hve under the unmediate government
of the Almighty Ruler. Their appeUative for God
is Isto-hoolo, the Hebrew of Esh-Eshys, from Ishto,
Great, but they have another appeUative, which -with
them, as with us, is the mysterious essential name of
God, which they never mention in common speech,
and only when performing their most sacred reU
gious rites, and then they most solemnly diride it in
syUables, -with intermediate words, so as not to pro
nounce the ineffable name at once."
Thus, in their sacred dances at their feast of the
first-fruits, they sing Aleluyah and Mesheha, from the
Hebrew of Masheach, Messiah, the anointed one.

APPENDIX. 327
" Fo mesheha," " He mesheha," " IFaA meshehah,"
thus making the Alleluyah, the Meshiah, the Yeho-
vah. Can we, for a moment, beUeve that these sacred
weU-known Hebrew]words found their way by accident
to the -wUderness ? Or can it be doubted that, Uke
the fire of the burning hush, which never is extin
guished, those words of reUgious adoration are the
sacred reUcs of tradition, handed do^wn to them
from generation to generation ? "In the same maui
ner,'' says Adair, " they sing on certain other reUgious
celebrations, ailyo ailyo, which is the Hebrew el for
God, by his attribute of omnipotence. They likewise
sing hewah, hewah. He chyra, the " immortal soul."
Those words sung at their reUgious rejoicings are
never uttered at any other time, which must have
occasioned the loss of their divine hymns. They on
some occasions sing SMlu yo — Shilu he- — Shilu wah.
The three terminations make up in their order the
four lettered dirine name in Hebrew. Shilu is eri-
dently Shaleach, Shiloth, the messenger, " the peace
maker." The number of Hebrew words used in their reU
gious services is incredible ; thus, in chiding any
one for levity during a solemn worship, they say,
Che hakeet Kana, " you resemble those reproved in
Canaan," and, to convey the idea of criminaUty, they
say Hackset Canaha, " the sinners of Canaan."
They caU lightning eloah, and the rumbling of
thunder rowah, from the Hebrew ruach, " spirit."
Like the Israelites, they divide the year into four
seasons, with the same festivals ; they calculate by

328 APPENDIX.
moons, and celebrate, as the Jews do, the berachah
halebana, the blessing for the new moon.
The Indians have their prophets and high-priests,
the same as the Jews had ; not hastily selected,
but chosen with caution from the most wise and dis
creet, and they ordain their high-priests by anointing
and have a most holy place in their sanctuaries, like
the Holy of HoUes in the temple. The archimagus,
or high-priest, wears, in resemblance to the ancient
breast-plate, a white conch-sheU ornamented so as to
resemble the precious stones on the Urim, and in
stead of the golden plate worn by the Lerite on his
forehead, bearing the inscription Kodish Ladonaye,
the Indian binds his brows ¦with a wreath of swan's
feathers, and wears a tuft of white feathers, which
he caUs Yatira.
The Indians have their ark, which they invariably
carry with them to battle, weU guarded. In speak
ing of the Indian places of refuge, Adair says, " I
observed that if a captive taken, by the reputed
power of the holy things of their ark, should be able
to make his escape into one of these towns, or even
into the winter house of the Archimagus, he is deli
vered from the fiery torture, otherwise inevitable.
This, when taken in connection with the many other
faint images of Mosaic customs, seems to point at
the mercy-seat of the sanctuary. It is also worthy
of notice, that they never place the ark on the ground.
On hilly ground, where large stones are plenty, they
rest it thereon, but on level prairies, upon short logs,
where they also seat themselves. And when we con
sider," continues Adair, " in what a surprising man-

APPENDIX. 329
ner the Indians copy after the ceremonial law of the
Hebrews, and their strict purity in the war camps ;
that opae, " the leader," obUges all during the first
campaign which they have made with the beloved
ark, to stand every day, they are not engaged in
warfare, from sunrise to sunset, and after a fatiguing
day's march and scanty allowance, to drink warm
water embittered with rattle-snake root very plenti-
foUy, in order to purification ; that they have also as
strong a faith in the power of their ark as ever the
IsraeUtes had in theirs, ascribing the success of one
party to their stricter adherence to the law, than the
other, we have strong reason to conclude them of
Hebrew origin. The Indians have an old tradition,
that when they left their o^wn native land, they
brought with them a sanctified rod, by order of an
oracle, which they fixed every evening in the ground,
and were to remove from place to place on the conti
nent, tovrards the sun rising, tiU it budded in one
night's time. I have seen other Indians, says the
same writer, who related the same thing. Instead
of the miraculous direction to which they Umit it,
in tlieir ¦western banishment, it appears more likely
that they refer to the ancient circumstance of the
rod of Aaron, which, in order to check the murmur
of those who conspired against him, was, in his fa
vour, made to bud blossoms and yield almonds at one
and the same time. It is a weU attested fact, and is here
corroborated by Adair, that in taking female cap
tives, the Indians have often protected them, but
never despoiled them of honour.
This statement of Adair, in relation to the ark, is

330 APPENDIX.
corroborated by several traveUers. Major Long, a
more recent traveller, in his expedition to the
Rocky Mountains, says, in relation to the ark,
" It is placed upon a stand, and is never suffered to
touch the earth. No person dare open all the cover
ings. Tradition informs them that curiosity induced
three different persons to examine the mysterious
shell, who were immediately punished for their pro
fanation by instant blindness." This is the Je^wish
punishment pronounced for looking on the holy of
hoUes — even now for looking on the descendants of
the high priest who alone have the pri^vUege of
blessing the people.
The most sacred fast day uniformly kept by the
Jews is the day of atonement, usuaUy faUing in the
month of September or early in October. This is
deemed in every part of the world a most solemn
fast, and great preparations are made for its celebra
tion. It is in the nature of expiation of sin, of full
confession, penitence, and prayer ; and is preceded
by ablution and preparation of morning prayer for
some time.
It is a very sacred fast, which lasts from sunset on
one day untU the new moon is seen on the succeed
ing evening. It is not in the nature of a gloomy
desponding penance, but rather a day of solemn
rejoicing, of hope and confidence, and is respected
by those most indifferent to all other festivals through
out the year.
Precisely such a fast, with similar motives, and
nearly at the same period of the year, is kept by the
Indian natives generaUy.

APPENDIX. 331
Adair, after stating the strict manner in which the
Indians observe the revolutions of the moon, and des
cribing the feast of the hanest, and the first offerings
of the fruits, gives a long account of the preparations
m putting their temple in proper order for the great
day of atonement, which he fixes at the time when
the com is fuU- eared and ripe, generaUy in the latter
end of September. He then proceeds :
" Now one of the waiters proclaims with a loud
voice, for all the warriors and beloved men whom
the purity of their law admits, to come and enter
the beloved square and observe the fast. He also
exhorts the women and children, ¦with those who
have not been initiated in war, to keep apart accord
ing to the law.
" Four centinels Eire now placed one at each cor
ner of the holy square, to keep out every Hving crea
ture as impure, except the reUgious order, and the
warriors who are not kno^wn to have violated the law
of the first fruit-offering, and that of marriage, since
the last year's expiation. They observe the fast tiU
the rising of the second sun ; and be they ever so
hungry in the sacred interval, the healthy warriors
deem the duty so awful, and disobedience so inexpres
sibly ricious, that no temptation would induce them
to riolate it. They at the same time drink plenti-
ftiUy of a decoction of the button snake root, in order
to vomit and dense their sinful bodies."
" In the general fast, the children and men of
weak constitutions, are aUowed to eat, as soon as
they are certain that the sun has begun to decline
from his meridian altitude.

332 APPENDIX.
" Now every thing is hushed. Nothing but silence
aU around. The great beloved man, and his beloved
waiter, rising up ¦vrith a reverend carriage, steady
countenance and composed behaviour, go into tbe
beloved place, or hoHest, to bring them out the
beloved fire. The former takes a piece of dry poplar,
willow, or white oak, and having cut a hole, but not
so deep as to reach through it ; he then sharpens
another piece, and placing that in the hole, and both
between his knees, he driUs it briskly for several
minutes, till it begins to smoke — or by rubbing two
pieces together for a quarter of an hour, he coUects
by friction the hidden fire, which they aU consider as
proceeding from the holy spirit of fire.
" The great beloved man, or high priest, addresses
the warriors and women ; giring aU the particular,
positive injunctions and negative precepts they yet
retain of the ancient law. He uses very sharp lan-
g-uage to the women. He then addresses the whole
multitude. He enumerates the crimes they have
committed, great and small, and bids them look at
the holy fire which has forgiven them. He presses
on his audience, by the great motives of temporal
good and the fear of temporal e'vU, the necessity of
a careful observance of the ancient law, assuring them
that the holy fire will enable their prophets, the rain
makers, to procure them plentiful harvests, and give
their war leaders rictory over their enemies. He
then orders some of the fire to be laid down outside of
the holy ground, for aU the houses of the various asso
ciated towns, which sometimes lay severalmUesapart."
Mr. Bartram, who visited the southern Indians in

APPENDIX. 333
1778, gives an account of the same feast, but in
another nation. He says, " that the feast of first-
fruits is the principal festival. This seems to end
the old and begin the new ecclesiastical year. It
commences when their new crops are arrived to
maturity. This is their most solemn celebration."
With respect to the sacrifices, we have had none
since the destruction of the temple, but it was
customary among the Jews, in the olden time, to
sacrifice daily a part of a lamb. This ceremony is
strictly observed by the Indians. The hunter, when
leaving his wigwam for the chase, puts up a prayer
that the great Spirit wiU aid his endeavours to pro
cure food for his wife and chUdren, and when he
returns -with the red deer, whatever may be the
crarings of hunger, he allows none to taste until he
has cut part of the flesh, which he throws in the fire
as a sacrifice, accompanied -with prayer. AU tra
veUers speak of this practice among the Indians, so
clearly Hebrew in its origin.
The bathings, anointings, ablutions, in the coldest
weather, are never neglected by the Indians, and,
like the Jews of old, they anoint themselves -with
bear's oU.
The Mosaic prohibition of eating unclean animals,
and their enumeration, are known to you aU. It
would be supposed that, amidst the uncertainty of
an Indian Ufe, all kinds of food would be equaUy
acceptable. Not so : for, in strict conformity -with
the Mosaic law, they abstain from eating the blood
of any animal, they abominate swine flesh, they do
not eat fish -without scales, the eel, the turtle or sea-

334 APPENDIX.
cow : and they deem many animals and birds to be
impure. These facts are noticed by aU writers, and
particularly by Edwards in his History of the West-
Indies. The latter able historian, in noticing the
close analogy between the reUgious rites of the Jews
and Indians, says, " that the striking conformity of
the prejudices and customs of the Caribbee Indians,
to the practices of the Jews, has not escaped the
notice of such historians as GameUa, Du Tertre, and
others ;" and Edwards also states, that the Indians
on the Oroonoke, punished their women caught in
adultery, by stoning them to death before the assem
bly of the people.
Among the Mosaical laws is the obUgation of one
brother to marry his brother's widow, if he die ¦with
out issue. Major Long says, " if the deceased has
left a brother, he takes the widow to his lodge after
a proper interval and considers her as his -wife,"
This is also confirmed by Gharleriux.
It would occupy a greater space of time than I can
'afford, to trace a simiUtude between aU the Indian
rites and reUgious ceremonies, and those of the
Jewish nation. In their births, in their separation
after the bhths of their children, in their daily
prayers and sacrifices, in their festivals, in their
burials, in the employment of mourners, and in their
general beUef, I see a close analogy and intimate con
nection, with aU the ceremonies and laws which are
observed by the Je^wish people; making a due
allowance for what has been lost, and misunderstood,
in the course of upwards of 2,000 years.
A general beUef exists among most traveUerSj that

APPENDIX. 335
the Indians are the descendants of the missing
tribes. Menassah Ben Israel wrote his celebrated treatise
to prove this fact, on the discovery of America.
WUliam Penn, who always acted righteously to
wards the Indians, and had never suspected that
they had descended from the missing tribes, says, in
a letter to his friends in England, " I found them
with Hke countenances to the Hebrew race. I con
sider these people under a dark night, yet they
beUeve in God and immortaUty, without the aid
of metaphysics. They reckon by moons, they offer
their first ripe fruits, they have a kind of feast of
tabernacles, they are said to lay their altars ¦with
twelve stones, they mourn a year, and observe the
Mosaic law -with regard to separation."
Emanuel de Moraez, in his history of Brazil,
declares that America has been peopled by the
Carthaginians and IsraeUtes, and as to the IsraeUtes
he says, nothing is wanting but circumcision, to con
stitute a perfect resemblance between them and the
BraziUans. The Rev. Mr. Beatty, a very worthy missionary,
says, " I have often before hinted, that I have taken
great pains to search into the usages and customs of
the Indians, in order to see what ground there was
for supposing them to be part of the ten tribes, and
I must own, to my no small surprise, that a number
of their customs appear so much to resemble those of
the Jews, that it is a great question vrith me,
whether we can expect to find among the ten tribes,
wherever they are at this day, all things considered

336 APPENDIX.
more of the footsteps of their ancestors than among
the different Indian tribes."
Monsieur de Guignes, an old French historian, in
speaking of the discoveries made in America, before
the time of Columbus, says, "These researches,
which of themselves give us great insight into the
origin of the Americans, lead to the determination of
the route of the colonies sent to the continent ;" and
he proceeds to give reasons for his belief, that the
greater part of them passed thither " by the most
eastern extremities of Asia, where the two continents
are only separated by a narrow strait, easy to cross."
Beltrami, in his discovery of the sources of the
Mississippi, after a full and interesting account of
the Indians, says, " Different authors have brought
them hither from all parts of the world. I was at
first induced to join -with those who derived them
from the Hebrews. It seemed impossible for me to
doubt that, by so doing, I should be building on an
impregnable foundation." He then proceeds to prove
their Asiatic origin by many interesting facts.
The late Earl of Crawford and Lindsay, published
his travels in America, in 1801. " It is curious and
pleasing," says he, " in reading the travels of those
who have been among these people, to find how their
customs comport with the laws of Moses ;" and after
describing at length their reUgious rites and ce
remonies, his lordship emphatically obsen'es, " It
is a sound truth, that the Indians are descended from
the ten tribes ; and time and investigation will more
and more enforce its acknowledgment."
It is, however, in Mexico and Peru, that we must

APPENDIX. 337
look for the most enUghtened and the most wealthy
of the Indian race. On the representations of Mon-
tesini, who traveUed in South America, the learned
Rabbi Menassah Ben Israel, as I have said before,
wrote his famous work La Esperanza de Israel, which
he pubHshed in Amsterdam, in 1650, endeavouring
¦with great zeal to prove, that the Indians in North
and South America were the descendants of the
missing tribes ; and CromweU, to whom the work
was dedicated, was greatly interested in the eridences
produced on that occasion. Montesini, traveUing
through the province of Quif, found that his Indian
guide was a Jew, and pursuing his inquiries, disco
vered that immense numbers Uved behind the CordU-
leras. Francis, the name of his guide, admitted to
Montesini, that his God was caUed Adonai, and
that he acknowledged Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
as his ancestors, and they claimed to have descended
from the tribe of Reuben.
Acosta contends that they have a tradition relative
to the deluge ; that they preserve the rite of circum
cision ; they offer the first-fruits, and in Peru they
eat the Paschal Lamb ; they beUeve in the resurrec
tion, and clothe the dead -with the richest equipage.
Lopez de Gomara says, that some of them, and not
aU, are circumcised. Acosta continues, " the Mexi
cans point out the various stations as their ancestors
advanced into their country, and it is precisely the
route which they must have held, had they been
emigrants from Asia."
Menassah Ben Israel declares, that the Indians of
Mexico had a tradition, that their magnificent place
VOL. III. Q

338 APPENDIX.
of worship had been built by a people who wore their
beards, and were more ancient than their Incas. In
the Universal History of 1748, it is affirmed, that the
Mexicans and other American Indians rend their gar
ments, in order the more effectuaUy to express grief
— the Hebrew custom at this day.
Lopez de Gomara states, that the Mexicans offer
sacrifices of the first-fruits, and, when Cortez ap
proached Mexico, Montezuma shut himself up for the
space of eight days in fasting and prayer. Emanuel
de Moreas and Acosta say, that the BraziUans marry
in their own tribes and famiUes ; and Escorbatus
affirms, that he frequently heard the southern tribes
jepeat the sacred notes Ha-le-lu-yah. Malvenda
states, that several tomb-stones were found in St.
Michael's, with ancient Hebrew characters.
When the Spaniards invaded Mexico, the Cholula
was considered a holy city by the natives, with mag
nificent temples, in which the High Priest Quetza-
colt preached to man, and would permit no other
offerings to the Master of Life than the first-fruits
of the harvest. " We know by our traditions," said
the venerable Prince Montezuma to the Spanish
General Cortez, that we who inhabit this country
are not the natives but strangers who come from a
great distance."
Don Alonzo EreceUa, in his history of ChiU, says,
the Araucanians acknowledge one Supreme Being,
and beUeve in the immortaUty of the soul ; and the
Abb6 Clarigero declares, that they have a tradition
of the great deluge. The laws and ceremonies of
the Peruvians and Mexicans have, no doubt, been

APPENDIX. 339
corrupted in the course of many ages, both in then
sacrifices and worship.
Their great and magnificent temple, evidently in
imitation of that erected by Solomon, was founded
by Mango Capac, or rather by the Inca Yupanque,
who endowed it -with great wealth. Clavagero and
De Vega, in their very interesting account of this
temple say, " what we caUed the altar was on the
east side of the temple. There were many doors to
the temple, all of which were plated with gold, and
the four walls the whole way round were cro-wned
with a rich golden garland, more than an eU in
-width. Round the temple were five square pari-
Uons, whose tops were in the form of pyramids. The
fifth was Uned entirely -with gold, and was for the
use of the Royal High-Priest of sacrifices, and in
which all the deUberations concerning the temple
were held. Some of the doors led to the schools
where the Incas listen to the debates of the philoso
phers, sometimes themselves explaining the laws and
ordinances." Mexico and Central America abound in curiosities,
exemplifying the fact of the Asiatic origin of the in
habitants ; and it is not many years ago, that the
ruins of a whole city, with a waU nearly seven mUes
in circumference, -with castles, palaces, and temples,
eridentiy of Hebrew or Phoenician architecture,
was found on the river Palenque. The thirty-fifth
number of the Foreign Quarterly Review contains
an interesting accoxmt of those antiquities.
The ruins of this city of Guatemala, in Central
America, as described by Del Rio in 1782, when
ci2

340 APPENDIX.
taken in conjunction with the extraordinary, I may
say, wonderful antiquities spread over the entire
surface of that country, awaken recoUections in the
specimens of architecture which carry us back to
the early pages of history, and prove beyond the
shadow of doubt, that we who imagined ourselves to
be the natives of a new world, but recently disco
vered, inhabit a continent which rivaUed the splen
dour of Egypt and Syria, and was peopled by a pow
erful and highly cultivated nation from the old world.
When we speak of what is caUed Mexican antiquities,
we must not confound the rude labours of modem
times, with the splendid perfections which distin
guished the efforts of those who reared the Egyptian
pyramids, and bmlt the temples of Thebes and
Memphis. It is not Mexican antiquities, but the
antiquities of Tultecan ; and in addition to the ruins
of Palenque, on this our continent, there are pyra
mids larger than those of Sachara in Egypt, at Cho-
iula, Otamba, Paxaca, Mitlan, Tlascola, and on the
mountains of Tescoca, together -with hieroglyphics,
planispheres and zodiacs, a symboUc and Photenic
alphabet ; papyrus, metopes, triglyphs, and temples
and buildings of immense grandeur ; mUitary roads,
aqueducts, viaducts, posting stations and distances ;
bridges of great grandeur and massive character, all
presenting the most positive eridences of the exist
ence of a powerful enterprizing nation, which must
have flourished two thousand years before the Spa
nish conquest. Take, for example, the description
of the temple at Palenque, which Lord Kingsborough,
m his travelsj not only declares was built by the

APPENDIX. 341
Jews, and is a copy of Solomon's temple, but which,
no doubt, is precisely the model of the temple de
scribed by Ezekiel. TraveUers speak of it in the
foUowing terms :
" It may be appropriately called an ecclesiastical
city, rather than a temple. Within its vast pre
cincts there appear to be contained (as indeed was,
in some measure, the case with the area that em
braced the various buUdings of Solomon's temple)
a pyramidal tower, various sanctuaries, sepulchres ; a
smaU and a large quadrangular court, one surrounded,
as we have said, by cloisters ; subterranean initia
tory galleries beneath ; oracles, courts of justice,
high places, and ceUs or dwellings for the various
orders of priests. The whole combination of the
buUdings is encircled by a quadrilateral pUastered
portico, embracing a quadrangular area, and resting
on a terraced platform. This platform exhibits the
same architectural model, which we have described
as characterizing the single temples. It Is composed
of three graduated stuccoed terraces, slopmg inwards,
at an angle of about seventy degrees, in the form of
a truncated pyramid. Four central staircases (one
facing each of the cardinal points) ascend these ter
races in the middle of each lateral facade of the
quadrangle ; and four gates fronting the same car
dinal points, conduct from the top of each staircase
into the body of the building, or into the great
court. The great entrance, through a pUastered
gateway, fronts the east, and descends by a second
flight of steps into the cloistered court. On the
various pUasters of the upper terrace are the me-

342 APPENDIX.
topes, -with singular sculptures. On descendiag the
second staircase into the cloistered court, on one
side, appears the triple pyramidal tower, which may
be inferred, from the curious distribution of little
ceUs which surround the centrsd room of each story,
to have been employed as a place of royal or private
sepulture. It would be pronounced a striking and
tasteful structure, according to any architectural rule.
On another side of the same cloistered court is the
detached temple of the chief god, to whom the whole
reUgious buUding appears to have been devoted, who
appears to have been the great and only god of the
nations who worshipped in this temple. Beneath
the cloisters, entered by staircases from above, are
what we beUeve to be the initiatory gaUeries. These
opened into rooms, one of which has a stone couch
in it, and others are distinguished by uninteUigible
apparatus carved in stone. The only symbol des
cribed as found within these sacred haunts is, how
ever, perfectly Asiatic, and perfectly inteUigible ; we
mean two contending serpents. The remnant of an
altar, or high place, occupies the centre of the clois
tered quadrangle. The rest of the edifice is taken
up -with coirrts, palaces, detached temples, open di
vans, baths, and streets of priestly ceUs, or houses,
in a greater or less degree of dUapidation." * * *
" It is perfectly clear, from the few records of their
reUgious rites which have come do-wn to us, and
which are principally derived from the extraordinary
roUs of American papyrus,* on w-hich their beautiful
* Formed of prepared fibres of the Maguery.

APPENDIX. 343
hieroglyphical system is preserved (there is one of
considerable extent in the Dresden Museum), that
they were as simple, perhaps we may add -with pro
priety, as innocent. Not only does it appear that
they had no human sacrifices, but no animal sacrifices.
Flowers and fnuts were the only offerings made
to the presiding divinity of their temples."
But who were the Tultequans and Azeteques, the
founders of this empire in America ; who 4)uUt the
pyramids of Cholula and city of Palenque ? Not the
Jews. Here we have a most singular diversion from the
path on which we originaUy set out — another extra
ordinary discovery, marked, too, by events no less
extraordinary than amazing.
They were the Canaanites, the scriptural Titans,
who, according to the sacred historian, buUt with
¦walls and towers reaching to the heavens. The
buUders of the Tower of Babel, the famUy of the
shepherd kings who conquered Egypt, and buUt the
pyramids, and were driven from Syria by Joshua.
The men who finaUy founded Tyre and Carthage,
narigated round the continent of Africa, and sailed
in their small craft across the Atlantic, and landed
in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Phanicians were the founders of Palenque,
Mitlan, Papantla, Quemada, Cholula, ChUa, and
Antiquerra. When I studied the history of these people, on the
ruins of Carthage, it was said by antiquarians pre
sent, that the Carthaginians had a colony at a con
siderable distance, which they secretly maintained ;

344 APPENDIX.
and when I was at Tangiers, the Mauritania Tangi-
tania of the ancients, I was shown the spot where
the pUlar was erected, and was standing at the time
of Ibnu, the Moorish historian, on which was in
scribed, in the Phoenician language, " We are the
Canaanites who fled from Joshua, the son of Nun,
that notorious robber." From that spot, then . . .
the pUlars of Hercules, now known as the Straits of
Gibraltar, they crossed to our continent, and founded
a great empire of the Ophite worship, with Syrian
and Egyptirn symbols. Now, mark the issue. Fif
teen hundred years after the expulsion of the Ca
naanites by Joshua, the ten tribes pass over the
Straits of Behring to the continent of America, and
poured down upon these people like the Goths and
Vandals. The descendants of Joshua a second time
feU on the Canaanites on another continent, kno-wins
them well as such, and burn their temples, and des
troy their gigantic towers and cities.
When Columbus discovered America, he found an
innocent people in a demi-savage state, -with Jewish
traditions, and the only reference to early times was
a vague impression that the ruins they saw were
buUt by giants, and a people caUed wandering
masons. I have the most settled conviction of this theory.
The magnificent ruins which are to be seen at this
day in Mexico and Central America, were the works
of the Phoenicians, and the irruption of the wandering
tribes from the north-west coast of America swept
that nation away, and have ever since maintained
possession of this country, untU white men have

APPENDIX. 345
thinned their ranks, and gradually encroached upon,
and usurped a great part of their territory.
The only opposition made to the general declara
tion of traveUers, that the Indians are of Je-wish
descent, is, that they are red men, and are beardless.
Now, take the oUve complexion of the Jews in Syria,
pass the nation over the Euphrates into a warmer
cUmate, let them mingle ¦with Tartars and Chinese,
and after several generations reach this continent,
their complexion would undergo some shades of hue
and colour ; and as to beards, they cannot grow
whUe they are continually plucked, as is the Indian
custom. The colour proves nothing against their
origin. Take our feUow- citizens on our eastern
borders, smd compare their florid colour ¦with the
sickly hue and saUow complexions of those Uving
on the southern shores, in the palmettoes and ever
glades, and we shaU see a marked distinction, and
yet they are members of the same family.
Du Pratz, speaking of the traditions of the Natches
tribe, relates that in answer to the question, " Whence
come you ?" their reply was, " AU that we know is
that our fathers, to come hither, foUowed the sun,
and came from the place where he rises. They
were long in their journey; they were nearly
perishing ; and were brought to this wUderness of
the sun setting ¦without seeking it." Souard says
of the Indians of Surinam, on the authority of Nasci,
a learned Jew residing there, that the dialect of
those Indians common in Guinana is soft, agreeable,
and regular, and their substantives are Hebrew.
Their language, in the roots, idioms, and particular
« 3

346 APPENDIX,
construction, has the genius of the Hebrew language,
as their orations have the hold, laconic, and figurative
style of the Hebrew prophets."
The Rev. Mr. Chapman says of the Osages, " it
is their universal practice to salute the da^wn of
every morning ¦with their devotion." A custom al
ways prevaUing among pious Jews.
Malvenda and Acosta both affirm, that the natives
had a tradition of a jubUee, according to the jubUee
of Israel.
Dr. Beatty, in speaking of the festival of the first-
fhiits by the Indians west of the Ohio, says, " at
this ceremony twelve of their old men divide a deer
into twelve parts, and these men hold up the venison
and fruits with their faces to the east, acknowledg
ing the bounty of God to them. A singular and
close imitation of the ceremonies and sacrifices of
the temple." The doctor further says, " they have
another feast' which looks Hke the Passover."
Sir Alexander MacKenzie, in his tour to the
north-west coast, says, that " the Chepewyan In
dians have a tradition among them, that they origi
naUy came from another country, inhabited by very
¦wicked people, and had traversed a great lake which
was in one place narrow and shaUow, and fuU of
islands, where they had suffered great misery ; and
a further tradition has it that nine parts of their
nation out of ten passed over the river. The Mex
icans affirm, that seven tribes or houses passed from
the east to the wilderness."
Beltrami says, that the skeletons of the mammoths
found in Kentucky ana Missouri, and other parts of

APPENDIX. 347
America, have been ascertained to resemble precisely
those which have been found in Siberia and the
eastern part of Asia, showing the facility of commu
nication between the two coasts. And here it may
be weU to state a fact, which is strongly corrobora
tive of the view we have taken, not only of the pos
sibiUty of passing from one continent to the other,
but of the actual and probably constant communica
tion between them. Charlevoix, says, he knew a
CathoHc priest, caUed Father GrUlon, in Canada,
who was recalled to Paris after his mission had been
ended, and who was subsequently appointed to a
simUar mission in China. One day in Tartary, he
suddenly encountered a Huron woman with whom
he had been weU acquainted in Canada, and who in
formed him that she had been captured, and passed
from nation to nation, untU she reached the north
west coast, when she crossed into Tartary.
Since deUvering the present lecture, I have re
ceived a letter from Mr. CatUn, the celebrated painter,
who for the last five years has been residing among
the Indians. Mr. CatHn says,
" The first thing that strikes the traveUer in an
Indian country as eridence of their being of Je-wish
origin, (and it is certainly a very forcible one,) is the
striking resemblance which they generaUy bear in
contour, and expression of head, to those people.
In their modes and customs, there are many striking
resemblances, and perhaps as proof, they go much
further than mere personal resemblance. Amongst
those customs, I shall mention several that have
attracted my attention, though probably they have

348 APPENDIX.
never before been used for the same purpose ; and
others I may name, which are famiUar to you, and
which it may not be amiss to mention, as I have seen
them practised whUe in their country.
" The universal custom among them of burying
their dead with feet to the east, I could conceive to
have no other meaning or object than a journey to
the east after death — Hke the Jews who expected to
travel under ground after death to the land of Ca
naan. On inquiry, I found that though they were
aU going towards the ' setting sun,' during their
life-times, they expected to travel to the east after
death. " Amongst the tribes, the women are not aUowed
to enter the medicine lodge ; as they were not
aUowed in Judea to enter the court of Israel. Like
the Jewish custom also, they are not aUowed to min
gle in worship -with the men ; and at meals, are
al-ways separated.
" In their modes, fastings, feastings, or sacrifices,
they have also a most striking resemblance. Amongst
aU the western tribes, who have not been persuaded
from those forms by white men, they are stUl found
scrupulously and reUgiously adhering to, and prac
tising them to the letter. The very many times
and modes of sacrificing, remind us forcibly of the
customs of the IsraeUtes ; and the one in particular,
which has been seen amongst several of the tribes,
though I did not witness it myself, wherein, Uke the
manner of the ' peace-offering,' the firstling and
that of the male is offered, and ' no hone is to he
broken.' Such circumstances afford the strongest

APPENDIX. 349
kind of proofs. AU the tribes have a great feast at
the dawn of spring, and at those feasts their various
sacrifices are made. At the approach of the season
of green com, a feast of the first ears are sacrificed
-with great solemnity, foUowed by feasting and
dancing : so at the ripening of different kinds of
fruit. The first Euid best piece that is cut from a
buffalo is always Deo Dante.
" Over the medicine lodge, and also over the
lodges of the most distinguished chiefs, are hung on
high poles large quantities of fine cloth, white buf
falo robes, or other most costiy articles which can be
procured, there to decay, an offering to the Great
Spirit. " The bunch of wiUow boughs with which each
dancer is suppUed, in the Mandan reUgious ceremo
nies, the sacrificing and other forms therein observed,
certainly render it somewhat analogous to the Israel
itish feast of tabernacles.
" The universal practice of ' solus cum sola' of the
women, ablution and anointing with bear's grease,
is strikingly similar to the Jewish custom. Every
family has a smaU lodge expressly |for this purpose,
and when any one of the family are ready for it, it
is erected -within a few rods, and meat is carried to
her, where she dwells, and cooks and eats by her
self, an object of superstitious dread to every person
in the riUage.
" The absence of every species of idolatry amongst
the North American Indians, affords also a striking
proof of the ceremonial law, and stamps them at

350 APPENDIX.
once, in one respect, at aU events, differing from aU
other savage tribes of which we have any know
ledge." What are, I may ask, the characters of these
people ? On the discovery of America by Columbus,
nearly 2,000 years after the dispersion of the He
brew tribes, the whole continent is found peopled,
not with a race of wUd men, of cannibals, of savages,
but -with a race of inteUectual, moral, hmbcent per
sons, dirided into many hundred nations, and spread
over 8,000 mUes of territory. " I swear to your
majesties," said Columbus, -writing to Ferdinand and
IsabeUa, " that there is not a better people in the
world than these ; more affectionate or mUd. They
love their neighbours as themselves ; their language
is the sweetest, the softest and the most cheerful, for
they always speak smilingly." Major Long says^
" they are the genuine sons of nature ; they have aU
the -virtues nature can give, without the vices of
ciriHzation. They are artless, fearless, and Hve in
constant exercise of moral and Christian -virtues,
though they know it not."
Charlevoix gives his testimony in their behalf.
" They manifest," says he, " much stabUity in their
engagements, patience in afiUction, and submissive
acquiescence in what they apprehend the wUl of
Providence. In all this they display a nobleness of
soul and constancy of mind, at wliich we rarely arrive,
with aU our philosophy and reUgion."
Du Pratz contends that they have a greater degree
of prudence, faithfulness, and generosity than those

APPENDIX. 351
who would be offended with a comparison with them.
" No people," says he, " are more hospitable and
free." Bartram, who Hved many years in the Creek na
tion, says, " Joy, contentment, love and friendship
-without guUe or affectation, seem inherent in them,
or predominant in their rital principle, for it leaves
them but with their breath. They are," says he,
" just, honest, Hberal and hospitable to strangers ;
considerate and affectionate to their -wives, chUdren,
and relations ; frugal and persevering, charitable and
forbearing." Who are they ? Men do not grow up like stones
or trees or rocks ; they are not found in herds Hke
wUd animals. God, that made man in his o-wn image,
gave to the Indians an origin and parentage, Hke
unto the rest of the great fanuly of mankind, the
work of his own almighty hand. From whom, then,
did our red brethren, the rightful o-wners of this
continent, descend .''
There seems to be no difference of opinion that
they are of Asiatic origin, and not indigenous to our
soU. Nearly aU writers and historians concur on
this point — they are Asiatic — they crossed to the
continent of America from Asia ; but who are they,
and from whom have they descended ?
Eldad, who wrote learnedly of the twelve tribes,
in 1300, contends, that the tribe of Dan went into
Ethiopia, and pretends that the tribes of NaphtaU,
Gad, and Asher, foUowed. That they had a kmg of
their own, and could muster 120,000 horse and
100,000 foot. In relation to part of these three

352 APPENDIX.
tribes, there might have been some truth in it, for
Tigleth PeUeser did compel them to go into Ethiopia.
Issachar, he contends, remained with the Medes and
Persians. Zebulon extended from the mountains of
Pharan to the Euphrates. Reuben dwelt behind
Pharan, and spoke Arabic. Ephraim and half Ma
nasseh were thrown on the southern coast. Benja
min of Tudela places Dan, Asher, NaphtaU, and
Zebulon on the banks of the river Gozan. In the
midst of aU these contradictory and vague statements,
two opinions prevail amohg Jews and Christians, in
early and late periods. One is, that the ten tribes
went into Tartary, where they remained ; the other,
that from Tartary they penetrated into America.
Manasseh Ben Israel, the most learned of the
nation, declares that they passed into America. Les-
carbot beUeves that the Indians are the posterity of
Ham, expeUed by Joshua, and who passed out of the
Mediterranean, and were driven by storms to the
American coast. Grotius contends, that the inha
bitants of the new world were originaUy from Green
land ; and while Basnage frankly admits, that mani
fest tracts of Judaism are to be found in America,
he contends, that the tribes could not have overcome
the warlike Scythians and penetrated to this conti
nent, and that they remained in Halak and Heber,
and in the cities of the Medes.
Truth, no doubt, lies between these opinions.
Many of the tribes passed into Egypt and Ethiopia,
many remained in Persia and Tartary ; all did not
make for the north-west coast, nor was it necessary
that all should do so. There were degrees of piety

APPENDIX. 353
and condition then as now. Restore Jerusalem to
morrow, and aU the Jews -wUl not return there.
Rabbi Akiba contends, that aU the noble famiUes
remained in Persia. A number, a considerable num
ber, no doubt, impressed -with a solemn heUef that if
they remained in Persia they would in time become
idolaters, and lose aU the landmarks of their ancient
faith, resolved, Hke those who went out of Egypt, to
remain no longer in bondage, and, as Esdrass says,
they departed for a country " wherein mankind never
before had dwelt" — and the resolution was perfectly
feasible. It was a thickly populated country, and by
keeping on the borders of China, they would, -within
the time prescribed, namely, eighteen months, have
reached our continent. At this day there is a
constant intercourse between the continents, and a
trip to the Rocky Mountains, once so terrifying, is
now a mere summer's journey.
If the Indians of America are not the descendants
of the missing tribes, again I ask, from whom are
they descended ? From the Egyptians ? Wherein,
in their beUef, is there the least resemblance to the
worship of Isis and Osiris, or the Hieroglyphics or
historical reminiscences of that very ancient people ?
Are they a part of the fierce Scythians ? Their war
like propensities would prove them to be so; hut
where among those barbarians do we discover the
heUef in one Great Spirit, together with the softer
rirtues, the purity and talents of the Indians ? Are
they of the Tartar race ? Their complexion, " the
shadowed Hvery of the burning sun," might be
offered in eridence ; they have not the flat head, the

354 APPENDIX.
angular and twinkling eye, nor the diminutive figure
of the Chinese or Tartars.
The Indians have distinct Jewish features, and
neither ui mind, manners, nor reUgion, bear any
affinity to the Tartar race. I have endeavoured to
show this by their traditions, by their reUgion, by
their ceremonies, which retain so much of the ancient
worship. But there is one proof more, which, in
my mind, removes aU doubt. Sir 'Alexander Mac
Kenzie, Ul his joumal of a tour to the north-west
continent of America, declares from his own obser
vation, that the Chippewa Indians practise circuin-
cision, which fact is corroborated by several other
traveUers amongst the various tribes.
It ¦wUl scarcely be necessary for me to refer you
to the many prophetic warnings relative to the sins,
the denunciations, the promises, the dispersion and
redemption of the Je^wish people, which we find
throughout the Bible. With that good book you all
are or should be famiUar — ^it is a deUghtful book,
view it in any manner you please. Let the un-
beUever sneer and the phUosopher doubt, it is certain
that the most important events predicted by the
prophets have come to pass, glaring an assurance
which is stripped of all doubt, that what remains to
be fuUUled, loill be fulfihed. In what direction are
we to look for the missing tribes according to the
prophets ? From Jerenuah we learn that they are
to come from a country north and west from Judea.
From Isaiah, " it is a country far from Judea," and
answering also " from the ends of the earth."
In Zachariah we are told, it must be in the wes-

APPENDIX. 355
tern regions, or the country of the going do^wn of
the sun ; and according to the historian, Esdras, it
must be a land wherein mankind never before had
dwelt, and, of course, free from the residence of the
heathen. Our prophet Isaiah has a noble reference to the
dispersed tribes and their redemption, which may be
here appropriately quoted. I use his language, the
Hebrew, which from its pecuHar associations should
be always interesting to you.
lai? nxE^-nK r-Mp7 it nyj; -jn!? i'dv xinn Din rrni
!=h^•s^^ -tfum Di-insm oi-isnni tupkk) -isip' — m«
iprn «)Dsi D'nS D3 siffji ; D'n -"Km nnnm -\ffwm
nn'ni : psn ni333 yaisn pp'' mirr nissji hvntr
; onsn p«» mbj? ora
" And it shaU come to pass in that day, that the
Lord shaU set his hand the second time to recover
the remnant of his people, which shaU be left from
Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and
from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and
from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
" And he shall set up an ensign for the nations,
and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Judah, from the four cor
ners of the earth.
" And there shaU be a highway for the remnant
of his people, which shaU be left from Assyria, Uke
as it was to Israel, in the day that he came up out
of the land of Egypt."

356 APPENDIX.
May I not with propriety refer, among other eri
dences, to the cruel persecutions which have uni
formly been practised towards the Indians of this
continent, not unUke those which the chosen people
have suffered for the last eighteen centuries ?
" What makes you so melancholy ?" said General
Knox to the chief of an Indian deputation, that he
was entertaining in this city, at the close of the
revolutionary war. " I'll teU you, brother," said
the aged chief ; "I have been looking at your beau
tiful city — the great water full of ships, the fine
country, and see how prosperous you all are. But,
then, I could not help thinking that this fine country
was ours. Our ancestors Hved here. They enjoyed
it as their o-wn in peace. It was the gift of the Great
Spirit to them and their children. At last, white
men came in a great canoe. They only asked to let
them tie it to a tree, lest the water should carry it
away. We consented. They then said some of
their people were sick, and they asked permission to
land them, and put them under the shade of the
trees. The ice then came, and they could not go
away. They then begged a piece of land to buUd
wigwams for the winter. We granted it to them.
They then asked com to keep them from starving.
We fumished it out of our own scanty supply. They
promised to go away when the ice melted. When
this happened, they, instead of going, pointed to the
big guns round the -wigwams, and said, ' we shaU stay
here.' Afterwards came more : they brought intoxi
cating drinks, of wluch the Indians became fond.
They persuaded them to seU their land, and, finaUy,

APPENDIX. 357
have driven us back, from time to time, to the wU
derness, far from the water, the fish, and the oysters.
They have scared away our game — my people are
wasting away. We Uve in the want of all things,
whUe you are enjoying abundance in our fine and
beautiful country. This makes me sorry, brother,
and I cannot help it."
These persecutions and repeated acts of cruelty
and injustice appear to have no termination — the
work of destruction, commenced -with the Narragan
setts, wUl extend to the Ceminoles, smd graduaUy to
the blue waters of the Pacific. Look even now at
the contest maintained by a handful of Indians in the
everglades of Florida. Do they war against unequal
numbers for a cro-wn — ^for a part of that immense
surplus which overflows from the coffers of a country
which was once their o-wn ? No — they fight for the
pri-rilege of dying where the bones of their ancestors
He buried : and yet we. Christians as we caU our
selves, deny them that boon, and drive the lords of
the soU into the den of the otter.
In referring to the splendid specimens of Indian
oratory, where, I would ask, can you find such
-wisdom, such lofty and pure eloquence, among the
Chinese and Tartars, even at this day ?
The Indians, Uke the Hebrews, speak in parables.
Of their dialects, there is no doubt that the Algon
quins and Huron are the parents of five hundred
Indian tongues — they are copious, rich, regular,
forcible, and comprehensive ; and although here and
there strong Hebrew analogies may be found, yet it

358 APPENDIX.
is reasonable to suppose, that the Indian languages
are a compound of all those tongues belonging to the
various Asiatic nations through which they passed
during their pUgrimage.
Firmly as I heUeve the American Indian to have
been descended from the tribes of Israel, and that
our continent is full of the most extraordinary ves
tiges of antiquity, there is one point, a reUgious as
weU as an historical point, in which you may pos
sibly continue to doubt, amidst almost conrincing
eridences. If these are the remnants of the nine and a half
tribes which were carried into Assyria, and if we are
to beUeve in aU the promises of the restoration, and
the fulfilment of the prophecies, respecting the final
advent of the Je-wish nation, what is to become of
these our red brethren, whom we are driring before
us so rapidly, that a century more -wUl find them
fingering on the borders of the Pacific Ocean ?
Possibly the restoration may be near enough to
include even a portion of those interesting people.
Our learned Rabbis have always deemed it sinful to
compute the period of the restoration ; they beUeve
that when the sins of the nation were atoned for,
the miracle of their redemption would be manifested.
My faith does not rest whoUy in miracles— Prori-
dence disposes of events, human agency must cany
them out. That benign and supreme power which
the chUdren of Israel had never forsaken, has pro
tected the chosen people amidst the most appalling
dangers, has saved them from the uplifted sword of

APPENDIX. 359
the Egjrptians, the Assyrians, the Medes, the Per
sians, the Greeks,, and the Romans, and whUe the
most powerful nations of antiquity have crumbled to
pieces, we have been preserved, united, and unbroken,
the same now as we were in the days of the patri
archs — ^brought from darkness to Ught, from the
early and rude periods of leaming to the bright
reaUty of ciriHzation, of arts, of education and of
science. The Je-wish people must now do something for
themselves ; they must move onward to the accom-
pHshment of that great event long foretold — ^long
promised — long expected ; and when they DO move,
that mighty power which has for thousands of years
rebuked the proscription and intolerance sho-wn to
the Jews, by a benign protection of the whole nation,
-wUl still cover them -with his invincible standard.
My beUef is, that Syria -wUl revert to the Jewish
nation by purchase, aud that the faciUty exhibited in
the accumulation of wealth, has been a proridential
and pecuUar gift to enable them, at a proper time, to
re-occupy their ancient possessions by the purse -
string instead of the sword.
We Uve in a remarkable age, and poUtical events
are producing extraordinary changes among the
nations of the earth.
Russia, -with its gigantic power, continues to press
hard on Turkey. The Pacha of Egypt, taking ad
vantage of the improvements and inventions of men
of genius, is extending his territory and influence to
the straits of Bahehnandel on the Red Sea, and to

360 APPENDIX.
the borders of the Russian empire ; and the combined
force of Russia, Turkey, Persia, and Egypt, seriously
threaten the safety of British possessions in the East
Indies. An immediate and balancing power is re
quired to check this thirst of conquest and territorial
possession, and to Jceep in check the advances of
Russia in Turkey and Persia, and the ambition and
love of conquest of Egypt. This can be done by
restoring Syria to its rightful owners, not by revolu
tion or blood, but as I have said, by the purchase of
that territory from the Pacha of Egypt, for a sum
of money too tempting in its amount for him to
refuse, in the present reduced state of his coffers.
Twelve or thirteen milHons of doUars have been
spoken of in reference to the cession of that inte
resting territory, a sum of no consideration to the
Jews, for the good- will and peaceable possession of
a land, which to them is above aU price. Under the
co-operation and protection of England and France,
this re-occupation of Syria -within its old territorial
limits is at once reasonable and practicable.
By opening the ports of Damascus, Tripoli, Joppa,
Acre, &c., the whole of the commerce of Turkey,
Egypt, and the Mediterranean wiU be in the hands
of those, who, even now in part, control the com
merce of Europe. From the Danube, the Dneister,
the Ukraine, WaUachia, and Moldavia, the best of
agriculturists would rerive the former fertUity of
Palestine. Manufacturers from Germany and Hol
land ; an army of experience and bravery from France
and Italy ; ingenuity, intelUgence, activity, energy.

APPENDIX. 361
and enterprize from aU parts of the world, would,
under a just, a tolerant, and a Hberal government,
present a formidable barrier to the encroachments of
surrounding powers, and be a bulwark to the inte
rests of England and France, as weU as the rising
Hberties of Ghreece.
Once again unfurl the standard of Judah on Mount
Zion, the four comers of the earth -wiU give up the
chosen people as the sea -wiU give up its dead,
at the sound of the last trumpet. Let the cry be
' Jerusalem,' as it was in the days of the Saracen and
the Hon-hearted Richcud of England, and the rags
and -wretchedness which have for eighteen centuries
enveloped the persons of the Jews, crushed as they
were by persecution and injustice, wUl faU to the
earth ; and they -wiU stand forth, the richest, the
most powerful, the most inteUigent nation on the
face of the globe, -with incalculable wealth, and hold
ing in pledge the cro-wns and sceptres of kings.
Placed in possession of their ancient heritage by and
-with the consent and co-operation of their Christian
brethren, establishing a govemment of peace and
good-wUl on earth, it may then be said, behold the
fulfilment of prediction and prophecy : behold the
chosen and favoured people of Almighty God, who,
in defence of his unity and omnipotence, have been
the outcast and proscribed of aU nations, and who,
for thousands of years, have patiently endured the
severest of human sufferings, in the hope of that
great advent of which they never have despaired ; —
and then, when takmg theu rank once more among the
voii. III. a

362 APPENDIX,
nations of the earth, with the good wishes and affec
tionate regards of the great family of mankind, they
may by their tolerance, their good faith, their cha
rity, and enlarged liberal riews, merit what has been
said in their behalf by inspired writers, " Blessed
are they who bless Israel."

THE END.

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