crooked courfe, until it falls into Long-Ifland found, between Saybrook and Lyme.

The length of this river, in a flraight line, is nearly three hundred miles. Its general courfe is feveral degrees weft of fouth. It is from eighty to one hundred rods wide, one hundred and thirty miles from its mouth.

At its mouth is a bar of fand which confiderably obftructs the navigation. Ten feet water at full tide is found on this bar, and the fame depth to Middleton. The distance of the bar from this place, as the river runs, is thirty-fix miles. Above Middleton are feveral fhoals which stretch quite acrofs the river. Only fix feet water is found on the shoal at high tide, and here the tide ebbs and flows but about eight inches. About three miles below Middleton, the river is contracted to about forty rods iu breadth, by two high mountains. Almost every where else the banks are low, and spread into fine extenfive meadows. In the fpring floods, which generally happen in May, these meadows are covered with water. At Hartford the water fometimes rises twenty feet above the common furface of the river, and having all to pafs through the above-mentioned ftreight, it is fometimes two or three weeks before it returns to its ufual bed. These floods add nothing to the depth of water on the bar at the mouth of the river: this bar lying too far off in the found to be affected by them.

On this beautiful river, whose banks are settled almost to its fource, are many pleafant, neat, well-built towns. On its western bank, from its mouth northward, are the towns of Saybrook, Haddam, Middleton, Weathersfield, Hartford, Windfor, and Suffield in Connecticut; Weft Springfield, Northampton, Hatfield, and Deerfield, in Maffachusetts: Guildford, Brattleborough, in which is fort Dummer, Weftminster, Windfor, Hartford, Fairlee, Newbury, Brunfwick, and many others in Vermont, Crolling the river into New-Hampshire, and travelling on the eaftern bank, you pass through Woodbury, nearly oppofite to Brunswick, Northumberland, the Cohos country, Lyman, Oxford, Lyme, Hanover, in which is Dartmouth college, Lebanon, Cornish, Clermont, Charleston, or No. 4, Chefter field, and many others in New-Hampshire Sunderland, Hadley, Springfield. Long-meadow, in Maffachusetts; and in Connecticut, Enfield, East Windsor, Eaft Hartford, Glaftenbury, Eaft Haddam, and Lyme.

This river is navigable to Hartford, upwards of fifty miles from its mouth, and the produce of the country for two hundred miles above, is brought thither in boats. The boats which are used in this business are flat-bottomed, long and narrow, for the convenience of going up ftreams, and of fo light a make as to be portable in carts. They are taken out of the river at three different carrying places, all of which make fifteen miles.

Sturgeon, Salmon, and fhad are caught in plenty, in their season, from the mouth of the river upwards, excepting fturgeon, which do not afcend the upper fails; befides a variety of fmall fifh, fuch as pike, carp, pearch, &c.

From this river are employed three brigs of one hundred and eighty tons each, in the European trade; and about fixty fail, from fixty to one hundred and fifty tons, in the Weft-India trade; befides a few fishermen, and forty or fifty coafting vellels,

NATURAL GROWTH.

THE foil, as may be collected from what has been faid, must be

very various. Each tract of different foil is deftinguifhed by its peculiar vegetation, and is pronounced good, middling or bad, from the fpecies of trees which it produces; and one fpecies generally predominating in each foil, has originated the defcriptive names of oak land-birch, beech, and chefnut lands-pine barren-maple, afh, and cedar fwamps, as each fpecies happen to predominate. Intermingled with these predominating fpecies, are walnut, firs, elm, hemlock, magnolia, or moofe wood, faffafras, &c. &c. The best lands produce walnut and chefnut; the next beach and oak; the lands of the third quality produce fir and pitch pine; the next whortleberry and barberry bushes; and the pooreft produces nothing but poor marfhy imperfect shrubs, which is the lowest kind (if you will allow me to use a bard word) of fuffrutex vegetation.

Among the flowering trees and fhrubs in the forefts, are the red flowering maple, the faffafias, the locuft, the tulip tree, the chefnut, the wild cherry, prune, crab, floe, pear, honey-fuckle, wild rofe, dog-wood, elm leather tree, laurel, hawthorn, &c. which in the fpring of the year ge the woods a most beautiful appearance, and fill them with a delicious fragrance.

Among the fruits which grow wild, are the feveral kinds of grapes, which are small, four and thick skinned. The vines on which they grow are very luxuriant, often overspreading the highest trees in the forefts. Thefe wild vines, without doubt, might be greatly meliorated by proper cultivation, and a wine may be produced from the grapes, equal, if not fuperior to the celebrated wines of France. Befides thefe, are the wild cherries, white and red mulberries, craneberries, walnuts, hazlenuts, chefnuts, butter nuts, beech nuts, wild plumbs and pears, whortleberries, bilberries, goofberries, Arawberries, &c.

PRODUCTIONS.

THE foil in the interior country is ealculated for the culture of

Indian corn, rye, oats, barley, flax, and hemp, for which the foil and climate are peculiarly proper, buck-wheat, beans, peas, &c. In many of the inland parts wheat is raifed in large quantities; but on the fea coaft it has never been cultivated with fuccefs, being fubject to blafls. Various reasons have been affigned for this. Some have fuppofed that the blafts were occafioned by the faline vapours of the fea; others have attributed them to the vicinity of barberry bushes; but perhaps the fandinefs and poverty of the foil may be as efficacious a caufe as either of the others.

The fruits which the country yields from culture are, apples in the greatest plenty of thefe cyder is made, which constitutes the principal drink of the inhabitants; alfo pears of various forts, quinces, peaches, from which is made peach brandy, plumbs, cherries, apricots, &c. The culinary plants are fuch as have already been enumerated.

New-England is a fine grazing country; the vallies, between the hills are generally interfected with brooks of water, the banks of which are lined with a tract of rich meadow or interval land. The high and rocky ground is, in many parts, covered with honey-fuckle, and generally affords the finell of pallure. It will not be a matter of wonder, therefore

that New-England boat of raifing fome of the fineft cattle in the world; nor will she be envied, when the labour of raifing them is taken into view. Two months of the hotteft feafon in the year, the farmers are employed in procuring food for their cattle and the cold winter is spent in dealing it out to them. The pleasure and profit of doing this is, however, a fatisfying compenfation to the honeft and induftrious farmer.

Population, Military Strength, Manners, Cuflotns, and Diversions.

NEW-ENGLAND is the most populous part of the United States.

It contains, at leaft, eight hundred and twenty-three thoufand fouls. Onefifth of these are fencible men. New England, then, fhould any great and fudden emergency require it, could furnish an army of one hundred and fixty-four thousand fix hundred men.. The great body of thefe are landholders and cultivators of the foil. The former attaches them to their country; the Jatter, by making them ftrong and healthy, enables them to defend it. The boys are early taught the ufe of arms, and make the best of foldiers. Few countries on earth, of equal extent and population, can furnish a more formidable army than this part of the union.

New-England may, with propriety, be called a nursery of men, whence are annually tranfplanted, into other parts of the United States, thousands of its natives. The flate of Vermont, which is but of yesterday, and contains about one hundred thousand souls, has received more inhabitants from Connecticut than from any other flate; and yet between the years 1774 and 1782, notwithfanding her numerous emigrations to Vermont, Sufquehannah, and other places, and the depopulation occafioned by a feven years bloody war, it is found from actual cenfus of the inhabitants in the years before mentioned, that they have increafed from one hundred and ninetyfeven thoufand eight hundred and fifty fix, their number in 1774, to two hundred and nine thousand one hundred and fifty, their number in 1782. Vaft numbers of the New-Englanders, fince the war, have emigrated into the northern parts of New-York, into Kentucky, and the Western Territory and into Georgia; and fome are scattered into every flate, and every town of note in the union.

The inhabitants of New-England are almoft univerfally of English defcent; and it is owing to this circumftance, and to the great and general attention that has been paid to education, that the English language has been preferved among them fo free of corruption. It is true, that from laziness, inattention, and want of acquaintance with mankind, many of the people in the country have accufloned themselves to ufe fome peculiar phrafes, and to pronounce certain words in a flat, drawling manner. Hence foreigners pretend they know a New-Englandman from his manner of fpeaking. But the fame may be faid with regard to a Pennfylvanian, a Virginian, or a Carolinian; for all have fome phrafes and modes of pronunciation peculiar to themfelves, which diftinguifh them from their neighbours. Men of eminence in the feveral learned profeffions, and colleges, ought to be confidered as forming the ftandard of pronunciation for their refpective ftates; and not that clafs of people who have imbibed the habit of ufing a number of fingular and ridiculous phrafes, and who pronounce badly.

The New-Englanders are generally tall, flout, and well built. They glory, and perhaps with juftice, in poffeffing that fpitit of freedom,

which induced their ancestors to leave their native country, and to brave the dangers of the ocean, and the hardships of fettling a wildernefs. Their education, laws, and fituation, ferve to infpire them with high notions of liberty. Their jealoufy is awakened at the firft motion toward an invasion of their rights. They are indeed often jealous to excefs; a circumftance which is a fruitful fource of imaginary grievances, and of innumerable groundlefs fufpicions, and unjuft complaints againft government. But the fe ebullitions of jealoufy, though cenfurable, and productive of fome political evils, fhew that the effence of true liberty exifts in New-England; for jealoufy is the guardian of liberty, and a characteristic of free republicans. A law refpecting the defcent of eftates which are generally held in fee fimple, which for fubftance in the fame in all the New-England fates, is the chief foundation and protection of this liberty. By this law, the poffellions of the father are to be equally divided among all the children, excepting the eldest fon, who has a double portion. In this way is preferved that happy mediocrity among the people, which, by inducing economy and induftry, removes from them temptations to luxury, and forms them to habits of fobriety and temperance. At the fame time, their industry and frugality exempt them from want, and from the neceflity of fubmitting to any encroachment on their liberties.

In New-England learning is more generally diffufed among all ranks of people than in any other part of the globe; arifing from the excellent eftablishment of fchools in every township.

Another very valuable fource of information to the people is the newfpapers, of which not less than thirty thousand are printed every week in New-England, and circulated in almoft every town and village in the the country.

A perfon of mature age, who cannot both read and write, is rarely to be found. By means of this establishment of fchools. the extensive circulation of newspapers, and the confequent fpread of learning, every township throughout the country is furnished with men capable of conducting the affairs of their town with judgment and difcretion. These men are the channels of political information to the lower clafs of people: if fuch a clafs may be faid to exift in New-England, where every man thinks himfelf at least as good as his neighbour, and believes that all mankind are, or ought to be equal. The people from their childhood form habits of canvaffing public affairs, and commence politicians. This naturally leads them. to be very inquifitive. It is with knowledge as with riches, the more a man has, the more he wishes to obtain; his defire has no bound. This defire afier knowledge, in a greater or lefs degree, prevails throughout all claffes of people in New-England; and from their various modes of expreffing it, fome of which are blunt and familiar, bordering on impertinence, frangers have been induced to mention impertinent inquifitiveness as a diftinguithing characteriflic of New England people. But this is true only with regard to that clafs of people who have confined themfelves to domeftic life, and have not had opportunity of mingling with the world; and fuch people are not peculiar to New England-they compofe a great part of the citizens of every ftate. This clafs, it is true, is large in New-England, where agriculture is the principal employment. But will not a candid and ingenious mind afcribe this inquifitiveness in thefe honeft and well-meaning people to a laudable rather than a cenfurable difpofition ?

A very confiderable part of the people have either too little or too much learning to make peaceable fubjects. They know enough, however, to think they know a great deal, when in fact they know but little. "A little learning is a dangerous thing." Each man has his independent system of politics; and each affumes a dictatorial office. Hence originates that reftlefs, fitigious, complaining fpirit, which forms a dark fhade in the character of NewEnglandmen.

This litigious temper is the genuine fruit of republicanism; but it denotes a corruption of virtue, which is one of its effential principles. . Where a people have a great fhare of freedom, an equal fhare of virtue is neceffary to the peaceable enjoyment of it. Freedom, without virtue or honour, is licentiousness.

Before the late war, which introduced into New-England a flood of corruptions, with many improvements, the fabbath was observed with great ftrictnefs; no unneceffary travelling, no fecular business, no vifiting, no diverfions were permitted on that facred day. They confidered it as confecrated to divine worship, and were generally punctual and ferious in their attendance upon it. Their laws were ftrict in guarding the fabbath against every innovation. The fuppofed feverity with which these laws were compofed and executed, together with fome other traits in their religious charaçter, have acquired, for the New-Englanders, the name of a fuperftitious, bigoted people. But fuperftition and bigotry are fo indefinite in their fignifications, and fo varioufly applied by perfons of different principles and educations, that it is not eafy to determine whether they ever deferved that charafter. Leaving every perfon to enjoy his own opinion in regard to this matter, we will only obferve, that, fince the war, a catholic, tolerant spirit, occafioned by a more enlarged intercourfe with mankind, has greatly increafed, and is becoming univerfal; and if they do not break the proper bound, and liberalize away all true religion, of which there is much danger, they will counteract that strong propenfity in human nature which leads men to vibrate from one extreme to its oppofite.

There is one diftinguishing characteristic in the religious character of this people, which we must not omit to mention; and that is, the custom of annually celebrating fafts and thanksgivings. In the fpring, the feveral governors iffue their proclamations, appointing a day to be religiously obferved in fafting, humiliation, and prayer, throughout their respective ftates, in which the predominating vices, that particularly call forhumiliation, are enumerated. In autumn, after harvest, that gladsome era in the husbandman's life, the governors again iffue their proclamations, appointing a day of public thankfgiving, enumerating the public bleffings received in the courfe of the foregoing year.

This pious cuflom originated with their venerable ancestors, the first fettlers in New-England; and has been handed down as facred, through the fucceffive generations of their pofterity. A cuftom fo rational, and fo happily calculated to cherifh in the minds of the people a fenfe of their depenpence on the Great Benefactor of the world for all their bleffings, it is hoped will ever be facredly preferved.

There is a clafs of people in New-England of the bafer fort, who, averfe to honeft induftry, have recourfe to knavery for fubfiftence. Skilled in all the arts of difhonefty, with the affumed face and frankness of integrity, they go about, like wolves in fheeps clothing, with a defign to defraud. Thefe people, enterprizing from neceflity, have not confined their knavith tricks to