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fited a fulphureous fpring, about 10 miles diftant from Canadarquai, with which the air is impregnated at a confiderable diftance. It depofits a great quantity of pure brimftone, and forms many curious ftalactites on the earthy bed from whence it iffues.

The ground of which I am now fpeaking, and which, in a circumference of fome thoufand miles, comprehends an infinite number of great and minor lakes, is the highest on the continent of NorthAmerica. To this, as a common centre, be traced the fources of the St. Law. may rence, Hudfon, and Mililippi, and of the rivers which flow into Hudson's Bay, and through the North-western continent,* radiating in almoft oppofite directions. Whatever may be the caufe of a fuperabundance of water in this elevated coun

try, it certainly, I think, has diminified, and probably will continue to diminish, in quantity, It is fufficiently, I believe, proyed, that in Europe and Afia, the waters have in many places gradually left the furface of the globe: ftrong appearances allo ferve to justify an opinion, that many parts of this ftate have been originally covered with water. The Mohawk River, which defcends above a hundred miles to its confluence with the Hudfon, probably derived its origin from the deficcation of fome confiderable lakes. It runs in its whole extent between two ranges of mountains, which leave an intermediate vale of level rich lands, except where the Highlands unite at a place called the Little Falls. Here the water defcends twenty feet in a cataract. The rocks on both fides of the river are perfectly compofed, and in horizontal layers: but at the Little Falls, or Straits of the mountains, the maffes of granite incline towards the bed of the river, and exhibit manifeft evidences of having funk from fome external preffure, or from the removal of their original fubftratum. At a confiderable height on the fore, above the Falls, the rocks appear much worn, and fretted into holes by the action of water; and in digging the canal which has been lately made there, large bodiest of trees were dug up at the depth of 20 feet below the furface of the earth. Similar appear ances alfo lead to a conclufion that the waters of the Genefee River, which iffue

*According to Mr. M'Kenzie, who has

traced them to the Ocean.

+I do not mention this as a fingular phænomenon for it has occurred in various places

in cataracts into Lake Ontario, were once alfo embanked on the South fhore, and that the extenfive flats on each fide of the river conftituted the bottom of a lake. From Canadarquai we proceeded through a cultivated country, fettled principally by natives of Connecticut, to the Genefee or Chenefco River, and arrived there at the limits of the inhabited country. The region extending Weft, inclofed between the great western lakes Erie and Ontario, the Genefee River on the Eaft, and the fources of the Allegany on the South, bears yet all the wild and primeval features of nature.

[To be concluded in our next.]

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

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ETRARCH, the lover of LAURA of Avignon, the author of thofe enchanting fonnets, which firft exalted Italian poetry to claffic fame,—the great restorer, by whofe cares, the remains of Greek and Roman literature were rescued from among the ruins of time,-PETRARCH, as if he had been a Scotchman, has not disdained to write upon the ITCH.

It is in his excellent ethical work, De Remediis utriusque Fortunæ, that he treats upon this ftrange topic. That work confifts of two books written in the form of dialogue. Of these books, the first is di rected to temper and moderate the info. lence of joy, by means of confiderations drawn from reafon and philofophy. In the fecond book, he endeavours to mufter the whole host of human woes, and to prefent fuch confolations as may ftrengthen and bear up the weakness of humanity under every one of them.

The ITCH is one of the ills for which he offers confolation. Some of his topics are here fufficiently diverting-" Rather than painful, the ITCH," fays he, " is by many perfons accounted exceedingly pleafing. It will ferve to awaken you in the night, better than either clock or watchman. If the difeafe be dirty and fhameful; fo are not the remedies by which it is to be cured; for, what can be preferable to exercife, the bath, temperance in fleep and diet? Hands bearing the marks of this diforder may appear difgraceful but that patience which endures it without fretfulness, is highly honourable. It may be vexatious to have the whole body covered over with this cutaneous diftemper: but, alas! how little do we concern ourselves for the cure of thofe more griev ous diftempers of our minds, luft, avarice, ambition, the thirst for revenge, and

all the kindred train of inordinate paffions!"

Such are the reflections of the elegant PETRARCH Concerning a diforder which cannot now be named without indelicacy. From the language in which he fpeaks of it, and from the confideration of its being numbered by him among other common fources of the vexations of human life, we may infer that it was, in the days of PETRARCH, a not unfrequent complaint among all ranks in life, and throughout the fouthern regions of Europe. Clean linen, fresh animal food, with the plentiful ufe of wheaten bread and other vegetable provifions, are the happy medicines, by the use of which it has been expelled. H.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine,

IN

SIR,

N the prefent eventful æra, which has witneffed the downfall of fo many antient and illuftrious families, I am furprifed to fee fo little of the public attention drawn to the royal family of MAC GREGOR. Let not your English readers fmile at this epithet; for it is an epithet unquestionably just.

In that most authentic, valuable, and judicious work, entitled, The Baronage of Scotland, we have a history of the family, written, it has been faid, by him who now claims to be the chief; and furely the teftimony of fuch a writer muft carry conviction to the moft fceptical mind. Indeed, the narrative is drawn up with a modesty, which flashes conviction in the reader's face. "Though the royal defcent of this most ancient clan might be traced from the chronicles of the Scottish kings to the remoteft antiquity, we fhall here," fays the illuftrious author," carry it no farther back than the immediate undoubted progenitor, PRINCE GREGOR, third fon of king Alpin, fon of the celebrated Achaius king of Scotland, who began to reign Anno 787."

To me, who know fo well the number and the authenticity of the Scottish records prior to that period, the felf-denial of him who did not make ufe of them to carry back his pedigree to Japhet the fon of Noah, fupplies the place of 10,000 proofs of the truth of the defcent which he has traced. Indeed I am now thoroughly convinced, with a member of the clan who was both a poet and an antiquarian, that there are but four houfes of high antiquity in Europe; the houfe of Auftria, the houfe of Bourbon, the houfe of Stewart, and the houfe of MAC GREGOR; and of

thefe, it is a question undecided, whether the houfe of Stewart be any thing more than a branch of that of Mac Gregor.

Of thefe four illuftrious families, the fate has been very remarkable. The chief of the houfe of Stewart is now a catholic prieft; the male line of the houfe of Auftria failed in 1740, by the death of the emperor Charles VI.; and the head of the houfe of Bourbon has for fix years been a wandering exile; but the history of the houfe of Mac Gregor is still more extraordinary than that of any of the other three.

About the beginning of the laft century, after having for many years before committed what their enemies called "valt outrages and depredations," the Mac Gregors, under the conduct of their chief, maffacred the Colquhouns, a neighbouring clan, with fuch circumftances of treacherous atrocity, that the name of Mac Gregor was abolithed by act of parliament, and the whole clan declared outlaws. It will naturally be thought that fuch a law could not have been paffed against a family fo illuftrious, but upon the most complete evidence; and it must be confeffed that the public opinion on this occafion acquiefced in the wisdom and justice of the legislature. But, notwithstanding these prefumptions, the hiftorian of the clan, whom we have already quoted in terms fo refpectful, has proved, by evidence the moft incontrovertible, that his family was innocent, and the Scotch parliament a pack of knaves." Mr. Alexander Rofs," fays he, "profeffor in the univerfity of Aberdeen, makes it plainly appear, in a Latin hiftory of the family of Sutherland, how grofsly this unfortunate clan have been mifreprefented and abufed;" and furely no man of common fenfe will pretend that even an act of parliament, corroborated by public opinion and the teftimony of all our biftorians, can invalidate the credit of a profeffor in the University of Aberdeen! It is true, that Charles II. having repealed the law which abolished the name of Mac Gregor, king William judged it neceffary to revive it, on account of fome new depredations committed by the clan under the conduct of Robert Roy; but what is king William when compared with profeffor Rofs?

and

The effects of thefe unjust laws were various. The clan was broken and difperfed. Some of them took one name, fome another; and they emigrated in multitudes to Germany, France, Italy, and Ireland. As the learned hiftorian already mentioned has not traced the Irish, italian,

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or German branches of his family, it is incumbent upon me to prove that there are any fuch; and fortunately, the proof is concife and conclufive.

That all-accomplished hero, who is reorded in the Baronage as having performed prodigies of valour when not yet fifteen, has just now raised a regiment of fencible infantry, to be employed by his king against the common enemies of Europe. In that regiment are fome Gernans, fome Italians, and many Irish; and as one of the officers was lately cow-keeper to the minister of Balquhidder, about 60 or 70 miles weft from this; another, a tailor, in the village of Callendar, where his father ftill follows the fame bufinefs, and keeps a dram-fhop; and a third, a gouger; it is hardly conceivable that thefe foreigners, efpecially the Germans, would obey fuch officers, were they not convinced that they have all fprung from the fame royal ftem. It may, indeed, appear furpriling to fome of your readers, that the chiefs of fo illuftrious a family fhould have felected fuch men for commands in their regiment: but let it be remembered, that the blood of Prince GREGOR, circulating in his veins, is more than fufficient to ennoble the meaneft tailor or herdsman on

earth. There was policy too in making officers of cow-keepers, gaugers, and taiJors. The French armies have been in vincible under their low-born generals; and what must be the prowefs of the Royal Clan-Alpines (for that is the name of the regiment), when they unite in their officers the advantages both of low and high birth? The exploits of this wonderful regiment, I have no doubt, will evince the wisdom of that legillature which lately reftored the name of MAC GREGOR; and I do not despair of living to fee its heroic commander fitting in the Houfe of Peers by the ftyle and title of DUKE OF GLENFALLOCK. By inferting this fupplement to the hiftory of the illuftrious houfe in your next number, you will much oblige all the Mac Gregors, as well as an ally of the family, who is

Your conftant Reader and Admirer, GREGOR MAC NAB. 119, South-bridge-freet, Edinburgh, May the 22d, 1799.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

OCTOR PALEY, in his Moral

part 2. chap. 3. has this remark:

"Slavery was a part of the civil conftitution of moft countries, when chriftiawity appeared; yet no paffage is to be

found in the Chriftian Scriptures by which it is condemned or prohibited."

And in a late debate on the Slave Trade, July 5, the Bishop of Rochester is reported as declaring "this traffic to be against the Spirit indeed, but not against the letter of the Chriftian religion."

Both thefe gentlemen, highly and juftly diftinguished as they are for genius and learning, I make no hefitation of pronouncing, are egregioufly mistaken on this point; and I appeal to the following paffage of Paul's first epiftle to Timothy, chap. i. ver. 7-12. which I thus tranf late fully and exactly in behalf of my affertion:

"Now we know that the bow is good, if any one ufe it agreeably to its defign; under this perfuafion, that no bow lies againft a righteous man, but againft violators of law and just subjection, impious and finful men, unholy and profane, parricides and matricides, murderers, whoremongers, fodomites, ENSLAVERS OF MANKIND, liars, perjurers, and whatever elfe oppofes THE SOUND DOCTRINE, (viz. of Chriftianity); according to the glorious gofpel of the bleffed God, which is committed to me."

The original word is ανδραποδισταις, which primarily fignifies “one who binds or enchains a man by the foot ;" and hence, fecondarily and generally, an enflaver of men. The definitions of ancient lexicographers and fcholiafts, conformable to this account, may be feen in Westein. A feparation from my books prevents, on my part, a more distinct illustration of this expreffion now: but the cafe is clear.

I am, Sir, your's, G. WAKEFIELD. Dorchester Gaol, July 9, 1799.

For the Monthly Magazine. Defcription, Character, &c. of the OTAHEITEANS, tranflated from the Letters of COMMERSON, a late French Navigator. TA

TAHEITE is the only country of

the earth inhabited by people without vices, without prejudices, without wants, without diffenfions. Born under the finest skies, nourished by the fruits of a land fertile without culture, ruled by fathers of families rather than by kings, they acknowledge no other god than Love.

A language very fonorous, very harmonious, compofed of about 4 or 500 words, indeclinable, inconjugable,-that

them to render all their ideas, and to exprefs all their wants; a noble fimplicity, which, neither excluding the modification of tones nor the pantomime of the pat

Gons, preferves them from that fuperb battology which we call the richness of language, and which makes us lofe, in the labyrinth of words, the juftnels of perceptions, and the promptitude of judgement. The Otaheitean, on the contrary, names immediately the object which he perceives; and the tone in which he pronounces the name of this object, has already expreffed the manner in which he is affected by it. A few words make a rapid converfation. The operations of the foul, the movements of the heart, are ifochronous with the firft movements of the lips. He who fpeaks, and he who hears, are always in unifon.

Let it not be thought here, however, that we are speaking of a horde of rude and ftupid favages. Every operation performed by them bears the stamp of the moft perfect intelligence. Canoes of a conftruction which has no known model; their direction regulated by the inspection of the ftars; vaft houfes, of an elegant form, commodious and regular; a very curious art of weaving their linen; the fruit-trees ranged judiciously in their fields, which have all the agreeable afpect of our orchards and plantations, without their tedious uniformity; all the dangerous places on their coafts pointed out by buoys and nocturnal lights, in favour of thofe who are paffing on the fea; all their plants known and diftinguished by names which indicate even their affinities; the inftruments of their arts, although drawn from rude materials, are fit to be compared with ours in the choice of forms and certitude of their operations; fuch are the rights which they already poffefs to our esteem, notwithstanding the little time we have had to be acquainted with them.

The induftry with which they handled and examined the iron; the horror they expreffed for knives and fciffors, as they feemed to divine the ill ufe which might be made of them; the eagernefs they tellified in taking the dimenfions of our boats, floops, fails, tents, barrels, in a word, of whatever they thought they could advantageously imitate, excited equally our curiofity and ingenuous ad miration.

Their averfion to wine and liquors was invincible. Sage in every thing, they receive their aliment and drink faithfully from the hands of nature. They have Deither fermented liquors nor boiled meffes: of course, I never faw more beautiful teeth, nor finer carnation colours.

Some of their chiefs were admitted to our tables. They would have an account to be given them of every plate which was brought on the tables. If a leguminous

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plant feemed good, they immediately afked for fome of the grains of it, and, on receiving them, wifhed to learn how and where they were to be fown, and how long they would be in coming to maturity. Our bread appeared to them excellent; but we muft fhew them the grain of which it was made, the method of pulverifing it, of converting the meal into pafte, and of fermenting and baking it. All these proceffes were followed up and feifed in the detail; moft frequently it was fufficient to tell them half of the thing; the other they had already foreseen and divined.

Several of their manufactures have the appearance of being borrowed originally from the Europeans. Thus the art of knitting drag-nets and putting them together as we do; the practice of bleeding, made with splinters of nacre (mother of pearl) fharpened in the form of lancets, the refemblance of their feats to those which our joiners make, very low, on four feet, and without a back, for children; their cords; their lines made of the fibres of vegetables; their treffes of hair; their hooks; their baskets, made in the form of herminettes; the copes which pass about the necks of the men, in form of a Dalmatica; their paffion for ear-pendents and bracelets; the fpecies of caftanets which they make with pearl oyfters; their flutes which refemble ours, but which they find it more convenient to play with the nofe; with other ufages, which taken feparately eftablish nothing, but collectively they feem to form a feries of imitations of Euro pean modes.

I fhall not quit my dear Otaheiteans, & nation which I refpect, till I have exculpated them from an injuftice which has been doné them in treating them as thieves. It is true, for I will diffemble nothing, that they have carried off a number of things from us, and that with a dexterity which would do honour to the most dexterous pick-pockets in Paris; but the right of property has no exiftence in a state of nature: it is a matter of pure convention. The Otaheitean, who has nothing of his own, who offers and gives generoully whatever he fees defirable, knows nothing of this exclufive right, nor of the mutual convention on which it is founded: how therefore can he merit the infamous name of thief?-One of their princes who visited us was a pleafant robber; with one hand he took away a nail, a glads, or a bifcuit, to give it with the other to the first of his own people whom he met, from whom he took bananas, hens, and hogs, to bring them to us.

"As to what refpects the fumplicity

of

of their manners; the civility and gentlenefs of their carriage, efpecially towards. their women, who are in no fort of fub jection among them, as among favages; their univerfal brotherly affection; their horror for the effufion of human blood; their idolatrous refpe&t for the dead, whom they only confider as perfons afleep; and laffly, their hofpital.ty for ftrangers; I fhall leave to the journals the merit of enlarging on each of these particulars, as our admiration and our gratitude in justice require. I fhall only add to my fummary defcription, that of the new iflands with out number, which we have touched at or difcovered; and amid all the extraordinary circumftances which have characterised our expedition, no people have gained fo much my efteem, love, and friendship, as the inhabitants of that beautiful, incomparable, happy ifland, among whom the golden age vainly fung by the poets feems realifed, and who, though immenfe in number, have never yet deviated from the fimple inftitutes of nature. I had at firft defigned to have given it the name of Utopia, which Sir Thomas More gave to his ideal republic, deriving it from the Greek roots and TOTOs (felix locus); but I learned afterwards that M. de Bougainville had named it La Nouvelle Cythère. Its own

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inhabitants call it Taïti.

K.

A PEDESTRIAN EXCURSION THROUGH feveral PARTS of ENGLAND and WALES during the Summer of 1797. [The writer of the following journal has been from his infancy an enthufiaftic lover of that

moral meditation which rocks and brooks and woodlands, and fragments of old caftles and ruined abbeys, have a tendency to infpire. Purfuits, indeed, of a very different nature eftranged him, for feveral years, from the indulgence of this propenfity. But the general afpect of affairs having at length determined him to retire from public exertion, the impreffions of early youth revived with increafing

force. In the mean time circumftances had

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produced another species of curiofity well calculated to go hand in hand with a paffion for the picturefque and romantic. Every fact connected with the history and actual condition of the laborious claffes had become important to a heart throbbing with anxiety for the welfare of the human race and facts of this defeription are not to be collected by remaining, like a homely weed, fixed to one fpot. Another motive, not lefs powerful than the former, confpired in prompting this eccentric ramble. On the Somerfetfhire coaft, and not many miles from Bridgewater, the author has an invaluable friend, well known in the literary world, whom as yet he had never feen, but for whom, during the imperfect intercourfe of a familiar and confidential correfpondence, he

had conceived all the affection of a brother. With this friend an opportunity of more immediate and intimate communication of fentiment the family of the journalist was then in Derby, had been long and mutually defired; and as he was determined to take the opportunity, in his way from Somerfetfhire to that place, of vifiting fome of the picturefque and romantic fcenery of Wales.

The reader is now in poffeffion of the principal motives and objects of this excurfion, and will accordingly be aware what fort of information he is to expect. It is only neceffary to add, that a companion of congenial mind increafed the pleafures of the earlier part of this ramble; but that, after the firft fortnight, the journalist pursued his way, a folitary rambler, over many a mountain, and through many a delicious vale, where fometimes he wandered an unnoticed ftranger, and was hailed at others with the most cordial friendship and hofpitality.

The journal that follows is rather a gleaning than the full harvest of those obfervations which the long-protracted ramble fo abundantly furnished: for the nature of a periodical publication demands compreffion and selection: pofition of the following article: many passages and hence the principal difficulty in the comand adventures, which, in a detached publica tion, would have formed, perhaps, the most interefting features of the work, being of neceffity omitted. It is hoped, however, that the fpecimen, fuch as it is, will not be found entirely deftitute of entertainment or information; in which two-fold view it is offered by the editor's friend and fellow-labourer in the vineyard of truth.]

ON

N Thursday, June 29, 1797, we fet off at between 9 and 10 in the forenoon, in a heavy fhower of rain, with a large umbrella over our heads; being previously determined that our progrefs thould not depend upon the caprices of winds and clouds.

As it was our intention to trace the banks of the Thames as far as Windfor, we directed our courfe towards Fulham Bridge, where the eye is regaled with the first glimpfe of rural fcenery. The views from this bridge have certainly fome attractions, chiefly however derived from the tranquil grandeur of the river; for the buildings equally remind one of the taste. and vocations of a trading city, and the. tea-garden ftile is confpicuous in the furrounding pleafure-grounds and plantations. A drizzling rain continued to fall: but, confidering the nature of the profpect (whofe character is rather luxuriance than extent or variety), neither the haziness of the atmosphere, nor the mift which curled along the furface of the water, and gave a grey and fober tint to the furrounding ob. jects, was any difparagement to the fcene.

The cafe, however, was materially dif.

ferent

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