the other receive it with the fame ceremony *. If war is denounced against an enemy, it is by a dance, expreffive of the refentment which they feel, and of the vengeance which they meditate +. If the wrath of their gods is to be appealed, or their beneficence to be celebrated; if they rejoice at the birth of a child, or mourn the death of a friend, they have dances appropriated to each of these fituations, and suited to the different fentiments with which they are then animated. If a perfon is indifpofed, a dance is prescribed as the most effectual means of reftoring him to health; and if he himself cannot endure the fatigue of fuch an exercife, the phyfician or conjurer performs it in his name, as if the virtue of his activity could be transferred to his patient ||.

"All their dances are imitations of fome action; and though the mufic by which they are regulated, is extremely fimple and tiresome to the ear by its dull monotony, fome of their dances appear wonderfully expreffive and animated. The war-dance is, perhaps, the moft triking. It is the reprefentation of a complete American campaign. The departure of the warriors from their village, their march into the enemy's country, the caution with which they encamp, the address with which they ftation fome of their party in ambush, the manner of furprising the enemy, the noife and ferocity of the combat, the scalping of thofe who are flain, the feizing of prifoners, the triumphant return of the conquerors, and the torture of the victims, are fucceffively exhibited. The performers enter with fuch enthusiastic ardour into their feveral parts, their geftures, their countenance, their voice, are fo wild and fo well adapted to their various fituations, that Europeans can hardly believe it to be a mimic scene, or view it without emotions of fear and horror §.

"But however expreffive fome of the American dances may be, -there is one circumstance in them remarkable, and connected with the character of the race. The fongs, the dances, the amusements of other nations, expreflive of the fentiments which animate their hearts, are often adapted to difplay or excite that fenfibility which mutually attaches the fexes. Among fome people, fuch is the ardour of this paffion, that love is almoft the fole object of feftivity and joy; and as rude nations are strangers to delicacy, and unaccustomed to disguise any emotion of their minds, their dances are often extremely wanton and indecent. Such is the Calenda, of which the natives of Africa are fo paffionately ford **; and fuch the feats of the dancing girls, which the Afiatics contemplate with fo much avidity of defire. But, among the Americans, more cold and indifferent to their females, from causes which I have already explained, this paffion mingles but little with their feftivals and paftimes. Their fongs and dances are mostly solemn * De la Potherie Hift. ii. 17, &c. Charlev. N. Fr. iii. 211. 297. La Hontan. i. 100. 137. Hennepin. Decou. 149, &c.

+ Charlev. N. Fr. iii. 298. Lafitau, i. 523.

Joutel, 343. Gomara, Hift. Gen. c. 196.

Denys H. Nat. 189. Brickell, 372. De la Potherie, ii. 36.

De la Potherie, ii. 116. Charley. N. Fr. iii. 297. Lafitau, i. 523. **Adanton, Voy. to Senegal, p. iii. 287. Labat, Voyages, iv. 463. Sloane, Hift. Nat. of Jam. Introd. p. 48. Fermin, Defcript. de Surin. i.

P. 139.

and

and martial, they are connected with fome of the ferious and important affairs of life, and having no relation to love or gallantry, are feldom common to the two fexes, but executed by the men and women apart. If, on fome occafions, the women are permitted to join in the festival, the character of the entertainment is ftill the fame, and no movement or gefture is expreffive of attachment, or encourages fa miliarity.

"An immoderate love of play, efpecially at games of hazard, which feems to be natural to all people unaccustomed to the occupations of regular industry, is likewife univerfal among the Americans. The fame caufes, which ch fo often prompt perfons at their cafe in civilized life to have recourfe to this pattime, render it the delight of the favage. The former are independent of labour, the latter do not feel the neceffity of it; and as both are unemployed, they run with transport to whatever is of power to ftir and agitate their minds. Hence the Americans, who at other times are fo indifferent, fo phlegmatic, fo filent, and fo difinterested, as foon as they engage in play become rapacious, impatient, noify, and almost frantic with eagerness. Their furs, their domeftic utenfils, their clothes, their arms, are ftaked at the gaming-table, and when all is loft, high as their fenfe of independence is, in a wild emotion of defpair or of hope, they will often rifk their perfonal liberty, upon a fingle caft . Among feveral tribes, fuch gaming parties fre quently recur, and become their moft acceptable entertainment at every great feftival. Superftition, which is apt to take hold of thofe paffions which are most vigorous, frequently lends its aid to confirm and ftrengthen this favourite inclination. Their conjurers are accustomed to prescribe a folemn match at play, as one of the most efficacious methods of appeafing their gods, or of reftoring the fick to health §.

"From caufes fimilar to thofe which render them fond of play, the Americans are extremely addicted to drunkenness. It feems to have been one of the first exertions of human ingenuity to discover fome compofition of an intoxicating quality; and there is hardly any nation so rude, or so destitute of invention, as not to have fucceeded in this fatal refearch. The most barbarous of the American tribes have been fo unfortunate as to attain this art; and even those who are so deficient in knowledge, as to be unacquainted with the method of giving an inebriating strength to liquors by fermentation, can accomplish the fame end by other means. The people of the inands, of North Annerica, and of California, ufed, for this purpofe, the smoke of tobacco, drawn up with a certain inftrument into the noftrils, the fumes of which afcending to the brain, they felt all the tranfporis and frenzy of

$4.

Defcrip. of N. France. Ofborne, Coll. i. 883. Charlev. N. Fr. iii.

+ Wafer's Account of Ifthmus, &c. 169. Lery ap de Bry, ii. 177. Lozano, Hift. de Parag. i. 149. Herrera. dec. 2. lib. vii. c. 8. dec. 4. lib. x. c. 4.

Barrere, Fr. Equin, p. 191.

Charley. N. Fr. iii. 261. 318. Lafitau, ii. 338, &c. Ribas, Triumf. 13. Brickell, 335.

Charlev. N. Fr. iii. 262.

intoxication.

intoxication. In almost every other part of the New World, the natives poffeffed the art of extracting an intoxicating liquor from maize or the manioc root, the fame fubftances which they convert into bread. The operation by which they effect this, nearly refembles the common one of brewing, but with this difference, that in place of yeft, they ufe a naufeous infufion of a certain quantity of maize or manioc chewed by their women. The faliva excites a vigorous fermentation, and in a few days the liquor becomes fit for drinking. It is not difagreeable to the taste, and when fwallowed in large quantities, is of an intoxicating quality. This is the general beverage of the Americans, which they diftinguith by various names, and for which they feel fuch a violent and infatiable defire, as it is not eafy either to conceive or describe. Among polished nations, where a fucceffion of various functions and amufements keep the mind in continual occupation, the defire for ftrong drink is regulated, in a great meafure, by the climate, and increafes or diminishes according to the variations of its temperature. In warm regions, the delicate and fenfible frame of the inhabitants does not require the ftimulation of fermented liquors. In colder countries, the constitution of the natives, more robust and more fluggish, ftands in need of generous liquors to quicken and animate it. But among fa vages, the defire of fomething that is of power to intoxicate, is in every fituation the fame. All the people of America, whether natives of the torrid zone, or inhabitants of its more temperate regions, or placed by a harder fate in the fevere climates towards its northern or fouthern extremity, appear to be equally under the dominion of this appetite. Such a fimilarity of tafle, among people in fuch different fituations, must be afcribed to the influence of fome moral caufe, and cannot be confidered as the effect of any phyfical or conftitutional want. While engaged in war or in the chafe, the favage is often in the moft interefting fituations, and all the powers of his nature are rouzed to the moft vigorous exertions. But thofe animating scenes are focceeded by long intervals of repofe, during which the warrior meets with nothing that he deems of fuificient dignity or importance to merit his attention. He languishes and mopes in this feafon of indolence. The posture of his body is an emblem of the state of his mind. In one climate, cowering over the fire in his cabin; in another, fetched under the fhade of fome tree; he dozes away his time in fleep, or in an unthinking joylefs inactivity, not far removed from it. As firong liquors awake him from this torpid ftate, give a brisker motion to his fpirits, and enliven him more thoroughly than either dancing or gaming, his love of them is exceffive. A favage, when not engaged in action, is a penfive melancholy animal; but as foon as he taites, or has a profpect of tafting, the intoxicating draught, he becomes gay and frolicome. Whatever be the occasion, or pretext, on which the Americans affemble,

Oviedo Hift. ap Ramuf. iii. 113. Venegas, i. 68. Naufrag de

Cabeca de Vaca, cap. 26.

Stadius ap de Biy, iii. 111. Lery, ibid. 175.

‡ Gumilla, i. 257. Lozano Defcrip. de Gran Chaco, 56. 103. Ribas,

8. Ulloa, i. 249. 357. Marchais, iv. 436. Fernandez Miflion. de las Chiquit. 35. Barrete, p. 203. Blanco Conver. de Piritu, 31.

Melendez Teforos Verdad. iii. 369.

1

the

the meeting alway's terminates in a debauch. Many of their feftivals have no other object, and they welcome the return of them with tranfports of joy. As they are not accustomed to restrain any appetite, they fet no bounds to this. The riot often continues without intermiffion feveral days; and whatever be the fatal effects of their excess, they never ceafe from drinking as long as one drop of liquor remains. The perfons of greatest eminence, the most distinguished warriors, and the chiefs most renowned for their wisdom, have no more command of themselves than the most obscure member of the community. Their eagerness for present enjoyment renders them blind to its fatal confequences; and thofe very men, who, in other fituations, seem to poffefs a force of mind more than human, are in this instance inferior to children in forefight, as well as confideration, and mere flaves of brutal appetite. When their paffions, naturally strong, are heightened and inflamed by drink, they are guilty of the most enormous outrages, and the festivity feldom concludes without deeds of violence, or bloodfhed t.

"But, amidit this wild debauch, there is one circumstance remarkable; the women, in most of the American tribes, are not permitted to partake of it. Their province is to prepare the liquor, to ferve it about to the guests, and to take care of their husbands and friends, when their reason is overpowered. This exclusion of the women from an enjoyment fo highly valued by favages, may be justly confidered as amark of their inferiority, and as an additional evidence of that contempt with which they were treated in the New World. The people of North America, when first discovered, were not acquainted with any intoxicating drink; but as the Europeans early found it their intereft to fupply them with fpirituous liquors, drunkennefs foon became as universal among them as among their countrymen to the fouth; and their women having acquired this new taste, indulge it with as little decency and moderation as the men ||.

It were endless to enumerate all the detached cuftoms which have excited the wonder of travellers in America; but I cannot omit one feemingly as fingular as any that has been mentioned. When their parents and other relations become old, or labour under any distemper which their flender knowledge of the healing art cannot remove, they cut short their days with a violent hand, in order to be relieved from the burden of fupporting and tending them. This practice prevailed among the ruder tribes in every part of the continent, from Hudson's Bay to the river De la Plata; and however fhocking it may be to those fentiments of tenderness and attachment, which, in civilized life, we are apt to confider as congenial with our frame, the condition of man in the favage ftate leads and reconciles him to it. The fame hardships and difficulty of procuring fubfiftence, which deter favages, in fome cafes, from rearing their children, prompt them to deftroy the aged and infirm. The declining state of the one is as helpless as the infancy

Ribas, 9 Ulloa, i. 338.

Lettr. Edif. ii. 178. Torquemada Mon. Ind. i. 335.
See Note XC.

Hutchinson, Hifts of Massachus. 469. Lafitau, ii. 125. Sagard,

246.

VOLI V1

Ggg

of

of the other. The former are no lefs unable than the latter to perform the functions that belong to a warrior or hunter, or to endure thofe various diftreffes in which favages are fo often involved, by their own want of forefight and industry. Their relations feel this; and, incapable of attending to the wants or weaknesses of others, their impa tience under an additional burden prompts them to extinguish that life which they find it difficult to fuftain. This is not regarded as a deed of cruelty, but as an act of mercy. An American, broken with years and infirmities, confcious that he can no longer depend on the aid of thofe around him, places himself contentedly in his grave; and it is by the hands of his children or neareft relations that the thong is pulled, or the blow inflicted, which releases him for ever from the forrows of life *."

To the History itself is added a variety of Notes and Illuftrations equally inftructive and entertaining.-We shall speak of the fecond volume in our next.

S.

Cafpipina's Letters; containing Obfervations on a variety of Subjects, literary, moral, and religious. Written by a Gentleman who refided fome time in Philadelphia. To which is added, the Life and Character of William Penn, Efq. Original Proprietor of Pennsylvania. 2 vols. Small 8vo. 5s. fewed, Dilly.

In the Editor's advertisement, prefixed to thefe letters, we are told they were written by a gentleman, no less esteemed for his virtues than admired for his learning, wit, and genius; that they were firft printed in Philadelphia; where a numerous impreffion was foon fold off, and a new edition, revifed and corrected by the author, foon after published. From that fecond edition, we are told, the prefent was made; the Life of Mr. Penn having been added to it by the Editor t. This Letter-writer appears to have entertained a kind of enthufiaftic affection for America, which he himself acknowledges and accounts for, in the following words;

"My attachment to America, I am apt to think, in a great mea fure proceeds from the profpect of its growing greatnefs, to which every day feems more or lefs to contribute. In Europe, the feveral arts and fciences are almost arrived at their meridian of perfection; at least, new discoveries are lefs frequent now than heretofore.-Architec ture, gardening, agriculture, mechanicks, are at a ftand. The eye is

*Caffani Hift. de N. Reyno de Gran. p. 300. Pifo, p. 6. Ellis Voy. 191. 'Gumilla, i. 333.

+ If we are rightly informed, the truly modeft and ingenious Mr. Rack, of Bath; to whom the public, is obliged for other moral and entertaining publications.