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It is a notion pretty generally prevailing among them, that it was not the fame God made them who made us; but that they were created after the white people; and it is probable they fuppofed their God gained fome fpecial fkill, by feeing the white people made, and fo made them better; for it is certain they look upon themselves, and their methods of living, which they fay their God exprefsly prefcribed for them, vaftly preferable to the white people, and

their methods.

With regard to a future flate of exiflence, many of them imagine that the chichung i. e. the fhadow, or what furvives the body, will at death, go fouthward, and in an unknown, but curious place-will enjoy fome kind of happinefs, fuch as hunting, feafting, dancing, and the like. And what they fuppofe will contribute much to their happiness in the next ftate is, that they fhall rever be weary of those entertainments.

Those who have any notion about rewards and punishments in a future ftate, feem to imagine that moft will be happy, and that thofe who are not fo will be punished only with privation, being only excluded from the world where happy fpirits refide.

Thefe rewards and punishments they fuppofe to depend entirely upon their behaviour towards mankind; and have no reference to any thing which relates to the worship of the Supreme Being.

The natives of New-England, according to Mr. Neal, believed not only a plurality of gods, who made and governed the feveral nations of the world; but they made deities of every thing they imagined to be great, powerful, beneficial, or hurtful to mankind; yet they conceived an Almighty Being they call Kichtan, who at firft, according to their tradition, made a man and a woman out of a flone, but upon fome diflike deflroyed them again, and then made another couple out of a tree, from whom defcended all the nations of the earth; but how they came to be scattered and difperfed into countries so remote frum one another they cannot tell. They believe their Supreme God to be a good being, and paid a fort of acknowledgement to him for plenty, victory and other benefits.

But there is another power which they called Hobbamocko, in English the devil, of whom they flood in greater awe, and worshipped merely from a principal of fear.

The immortality of the foul was univerfally believed among them. When good men die, they faid, their fouls went to Kichtan, where they meet with their friends, and enjoy all manner of pleasures; when wicked men die, they went to Kichtan alfo, but were commanded to walk away; and fo wander about in reftlefs difcentent and darknes forever,

THE NEW YORK

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STATE OF VERMONT.

Situation, Extent, Boundaries, &c.

VERMONT

ERMONT is fituated between 42° and 45°N. laritude and between °43′ and 3° 36' E. longitude from Philadelphia. It is 160 miles in length and on the fouth line forty miles and on the north line ninery fix miles in breadth. It has the flares of New-Ham fhire on the call, Maffuctuferts on the fouth, New-York on the welt, and the province of Quebec on the N. containing 10,237 fquare miles.

Civil Divifiors, Population.

THIS fare is divided into eleven counties, viz. Bennirgron, Rut

And, Addifon, Chittenden, Manchester, Middlebury. Burlington, Windham, Windfer and Orange, which are fubdivided into two hundred and thirty townthips. The number of inhabitants was in 1700, according to the cenf, 85,589 which number has fince greatly increated. Refervations of land are made in most of the townships for the encouragement of collegiate academies and fchool education, and for the fupport of the gofpel.

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Chief Towns.

INDSOR and Rutland, by an aft of the legislature are alterrely to be the feat of government for eight years. The former is fituated an Connecticut river, and the latter lies upon Otter Creek. They are botla very urtthing towns.

Bennington, is one of the largeft towns in this flate. It is firmated near the S. W. corner of the flate, and contains a number of handsome houses, a church, a courthouse, and a jail, two hundred miles N. E. from NewYork.

Two famous battles were fought near this town on the fixteenth of August, 1777 in which the British were defeated by the Americans. This event contributed in a great meafure to the fubfequent furrender of general Burgoyne's army.

Guildford, Brattleborough, Putney, Aminfier, Wethershield, Hartland, Norwich, and Newbury, are confiderable towns, lying from fouth to north, on Connecticut rrver. Newbury is the thire town of Orange county, which comprehends about three-eights of the whole fate: it has a court-houfe, and a very elegant meeting-houfe for Congregationalists. Newbury court-houte flands on the high lands back from the river, and commands a fine view of the great Ox Bow, which is formed by a curious bend in the river; it is one of the most beautiful and fertile meadows in New-England; the circumference of this bow is upwards of four miles, and its depth is nearly feven-eighths of a mile, containing above four hundred acres in the fpring, a view of this meadow from the high lands is highly delightful.

There are eight flourishing towns, viz. Shaftsbury, Pownal, Manchester, Clarendon, Poultney, Pawlet, Danby, and Charlotte. welt of the moun.atu · Vol. IV.

Ff.*

Mount Independence is at the fouthern extremity of lake Champlain, oppofits to which is fort Ticonderoga, in New-York fiate.

There is a very remarkable ledge of rocks in the town of Bradford, in the county of Orange; it lies to the weft bank of Connecticut river, and is as much as two hundred feet high; it appears to hang over and threaten the traveller as he paffes; the fpace between this ledge and the river is fcarcely wide enough for a road.

In the township of Tinmouth, on the fide of a small hill, is a very curious cave; the chaẩm at its entrance is about four feet in circumference; entering this you defcend one hundred and four feet, and then opens a fpacious room, twenty feet in breadth, and one hundred feet in length; the angle of defcent is about forty five degeees. The roof of this cavern is of rock, through which the water is continually penitrating. The ftalacties which hang from the roof appear like icecicles on the eves of houses, and are continually increafing in number and magnitude. The bottom and fides are daily incrufting with fpar and other minereal fubflances. On the fides of this fubterraneous hall are tables, chairs, benchs &c. which appear to have been artificially carved. This richly ornamented room when illuminated with the candles of the guides, has an inchanting effect upon the eye of the fpectator. The general caufe of these aflonifhing appearances, we conclude, from the various circumRances accompanying them, is the water filtrating flowly through the incumbeat firata; and taking up in its paffage a variety of minereal fubflances, thus becoming faturated with metalic particles, gradually exfuding on the furface of the caverns and fiffures, in a quiefcent fate, the aqueous particles evaporate, and leave the minereal fubflances to unite according to their

affinities.

At the end of this cave is a circular hole, fifteen feet deep, apparently hewn out in a conical form, enlarging gradually as you defcend, in the form of a fugar loaf; at the bottom is a fpring of fresh water in continual motion, like the boiling of a pot; its depth has never been founded.

In fome low lands over against the great Ox Bow, a remarkable fpring was difcovered about twenty years fince; it dries up once in two or three years, and burfts out in another place; it has a strong fiell of fulphur, and throws up continually a peculiar kind of white fand, and when the water is left to fettle, a thick yellow fcun rifes on its top.

Climate and Face of the Country.

THE climate of this State is in a very confiderable degree favoura

ble both to man and vegatation. The winter feafon commonly lafts from the beginning of November to the middle of April, during which the inhabitants enjoy a ferene fky and a keen cold air. Snow begins to fall, commonly, by the first of November; but the permanent fnows do not fall till about the 20th of December, which prevent the ground freezing to any confidera. ble depth. In April the fnow is gradually diffolved by the warin influences of the fun, which moiftens and enrichens the earth, and vegetation advances with furprising rapidity.

Generally fpeaking, this State is hilly, but not rocky; northward to the Canada fine it is flat: the country at large is well watered, having Michifcoui, Lamoille, Onion, and Otter Creek rivers, which run across it from Eaft to Weft into Lake Champlain; Weft, Sexton's Black, Waterquechee, White, @mpompanogfuck, Weld's Wait's Paffumfick, and several fmaller rivers,

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