never to sell those which we then reserved-they are as small as we can live comfortably on.

"Brother; You want us to travel with you, and look for other lands. If we should sell our lands and move off into a distant country, towards the setting sun, we should be looked upon in the country to which we go as foreigners and strangers, and be despised by the red as well as the white men; and we should soon be surrounded by the white men, who would there also kill our game, come upon our lands, and again try to get them from us.

"Brother; We are determined not to sell our lands, but to continue on them-we like them-they are fruitful, and produce us corn in abundance, for the support of our women and children, and grass and herbs for our cattle.

"Brother; At the treaties held for the purchase of our lands, the white men, with sweet voices and smiling faces, told us they loved us, and that they would not cheat us, but that the king's children on the other side of the lake would cheat us. When we go on the other side of the lake, the king's children tell us your people will cheat us; but, with sweet voices and smiling faces, assure us of their love, and that they will not defraud us. These things puzzle our heads, and we believe that the Indians must take care of themselves, and not trust either in your people or in the king's children.

"Brother; At a late council we requested our agents to tell you, that we would not sell our lands, and we think you have not spoken to our agents, or they would have informed you so, and we should not have met you at our council-fire at this time.

Brother; The white people buy and sell false rights to our lands, and your employers have, you say, paid a great price for their right-they must have plenty of money, to spend it in buying false rights to lands belonging to Indians. The loss of it will not hurt them, but our lands are of great value to us, and we wish you to go back with our talk to your employers, and to tell them and the Yorkers, that they have no right to buy and sell false rights to our lands.

"Brother; We hope you clearly understand all the words we have spoken. This is the whole of what we have to say.

In answer to Mr. Alexander, the Christian Missionary Red Jacket addressed himself thus:

Brother; We listened to the talk you delivered to us from the council of black coats* in New York. We have fully considered your talk, and the offers you have made us-we perfectly understand them, and we return an answer which we also wish you to understand. In making up our minds, we have looked back, and remembered what has been done in our days, and what our fathers have told us was done in old times.

Brother; Great numbers of black coats have been amongst the Indians, and with sweet voices and smiling faces, have offered to teach them the religion of the white people. Our brethren in the east listened to the black coats-turned from the religion of their forefathers, and took up the religion of the white people. What good has it done them? Are they more happy and more friendly one to another than we are? No, brother, they are a divided people-we are united-they quarrel about religion-we live in love and friendship-they drink strong water-have learned how to cheat-and to practice all the vices of the white men.-Brother, if you are our well-wisher, keep away, and do not disturb us.

"Brother; We do not worship the Great Spirit as the white men do; for we believe that forms of worship are indifferent to the Great Spirit-it is the offering of a sincere heart that pleases him, and we worship him in this manner. According to your religion, we must believe in a Father and a Son, or we will not be happy hereafter. We have always believed in a Father, and we worship him as we were taught by our fathers. Your book says the Son was sent on earth by the Father-did all the people who saw the Son believe in him? No, they did not; and the consequences must be known to you, if you have read the book.

"Brother; You wish us to change our religion for * The appellation given to clergymen by the Indians.

yours-we like our religion, and do not want another. Our friends, (pointing to Mr. Taylor and Mr. Parrish) do us great good-they counsel us in our troubles, and instruct us how to make ourselves comfortable. Our friends, the quakers, do more than this-they give us ploughs, and show us how to use them. They tell us we are accountable beings, but do not say we must change our religion-we are satisfied with what they do.

"Brother; For these reasons we cannot receive your offers-we have other things to do, and beg you to make your mind easy, and not trouble us any more, lest our heads should be too much loaded, and by and by we should go distracted."

Soil and productions, vegetable and animal.-In this vast extent of territory is to be found every species of soil which the earth affords, and equal to that of any country in the habitable globe.-In one part or the other is produced all the various kinds of fruit, grain, pulse, and garden plants and roots which are found in Europe, and have been thence transplanted to America; and besides these, a great variety of native vegetables.-On the Atlantic coast, to the north and east, the country is stony, and towards the south, sandy; but in both cases it is interspersed with a great deal of excellent land.Approaching the mountains the soil improves, and there are many situations extremely fertile on the mountains, the soil is light and thin, but rich in the valleys between the ridges. Beyond the mountains, in the valleys of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri, there are vast tracts uncommonly rich and fertile. Towards the south-western parts of the Missouri territory, the soil is light, thin, and sandy. The mountainous region to the north-west is pretty similar to the Allegany Mountains, but the hills are much more lofty, and the soil more variable. On the other side of these mountains, there is much good soil all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

The produce of the United States consists of every variety in the known world; among which may be noticed the following: Indian corn (or maize) is a native

G

grain of America, from whence all other countries have been supplied. It agrees with every climate from the equator to 45 deg. north; but it flourishes best between the latitudes of 30 deg. and 40 deg. The bunched Guinea corn is a small grain cultivated by the negroes in the southern states, and affords a fine food for poultry. The spiked Indian corn is of a similar kind. Rice was first introduced in the Carolinas in 1668, but it was little cultivated until eight years afterwards, when a fresh supply was brought by a ship from Madagascar. Its culture is chiefly confined to North and South Carolina and Georgia. Wild rice is the most valuable of all the spontaneous productions of North America, and grows in profusion in some of the interior districts. Wheat, rye, barley, and oats are cultivated, with few exceptions, throughout all the states. In Pennsylvania is a kind of grain called spelts, which has much the appearance of wheat, and is excellent food for horses. The flour made from it is very white, and has often been mixed with wheat flour for bread.

Potatoes are a native root of the American Continent, and have lately been discovered in a wild state, and in great quantities, on the banks of the La Plata and Chili. The culinary roots and plants are carrots, parsnips, turnips, radishes, beets, beans, peas, cabbages, cauliflowers, celery, lettuce, asparagus, leeks, onions, angelica, peppergrass, cucumbers, watermelons, muskmelons, cantelopes, pumpkins, mandrakes, squashes, &c. &c. Besides these there are many other roots and plants of a medicinal kind, such as elecampane or starwort, spikenard, sarsaparilla, ginseng, snakeroot, liquorice, solomon's-seal, devil's-bit horse-radish, gold thread, blood root, &c. &c.

Apples are the most common fruit in the United States, and arrive at great perfection. In the eastern and middle states they are produced in the greatest plenty, and also in the interior of the country; but in the maritime parts of the southern states, and in Louisiana, they do not thrive. Besides apples are pears, cherries, plums, grapes, peaches, apricots, quinces, nectarines, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, mulberries, blackberries,

cranberries, whortleberries, bilberries, &c. The two first, south of 33 deg. north lat. become not worth the ground they occupy. Of the nuts are walnuts, chesnuts, hazlenuts, filberts, beechnuts, and Illinois nuts; the latter are to be found chiefly on the Illinois River. Figs, pomegranates, oranges, and lemons, are not natural to any state north of the Carolinas. The two latter species, with certain tropical fruits, are raised in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, and some of the other southern regions. Of the various kinds of forest trees, shrubs, and flowers, such of them as are worthy of notice will be mentioned in the description of the several states and

territories.

Out of 200 species of animals, which naturalists suppose is the whole number existing upon earth, 100 species are natives of America. The wild beasts are very numerous. Among these the mammoth, not found in the civilized parts of America, but supposed still to exist north of the great lakes, stands pre-eminently distinguished for its stupendous magnitude.

Of the history of the mammoth we are much in the dark. That animals have once existed carrying these enormous bones, there can be no question. Their present existence is much doubted; and the only proof we have to the contrary is a curious tradition of the Indians, handed down to them by their fathers, which being delivered by a principal chief of the Delaware tribe to the governor of Virginia during the American revolution, is recorded in the following words:-"That in ancient times a herd of these tremendous animals came to the Big-bone licks, on the the banks of the Ohio, and began a universal destruction of the buffaloes, deer, elks, bears, and other animals which had been created for the use of the Indians that the great man above, looking down and seeing this, was so enraged, that he seized his lightning, descended on the earth, seated himself on a neighbouring mountain, upon a rock, on which his seat and the print of his feet are still to be seen, and hurled his thunder-bolts among them till the whole were slaughtered,