day, but in the lapse of a twelvemonth he was obliged to have diurnally recourse to his razor; he has now what may be termed a handsome beard; it is dark, bushy, and repulsive; and before he reaches the age of thirty (he is now only twenty-three) he may, I am of opinion, appear with dignity at the Court of the Grand Turk.

(True Copy.) (Signed) GUY WARD.* Long Island, June 15, 1795.

Upon this subject there can now be no more controversy. Facts will ever supersede speculation; and, however the casuist may argue, truth vindicates itself. The page of Buffon that relates to the beards of the Six Nations, may eternally enforce homage by the dignified march of its periods; for the page of Buffon, whether his subject be the creation of the first man, the Arab wandering in the desert, or the

[* This important documentary evidence is not at once traceable. Its reappearance in 1801 was to be expected. Colonel John Butler was the famous New York Tory; Cf. Hough, Proceedings, Commissioners of Indian Affairs (New York). 1783-1790, p. 145.

"This renowned warrior (Captain Joseph Brant) is not of any royal or conspicuous progenitors, but by his ability in war, and political conduct in peace, has raised himself to the highest dignity of his nation, and his alliance and friendship is now courted by sovereign and foreign states."

Patrick Campbell: Travels in North America in the Years 1791 and 1792. Edinburgh 1793. p. 188. Campbell spent several days very agreeably at Brant's house-pp. 188

Mohock wanting a beard, is ever found to blaze with magnificence, and sparkle with illustration. But it can bring no conviction to him who submits his book to his reason, and not his reason to his book.

About eight miles from the Occoquan mills is a house of worship called Powheek Church; a name it derives from a Run that flows

near its walls. Hither I rode on Sundays and joined the congregation of Parson Wems, a Minister of the Episcopal persuasion, who was cheerful in his mien that he might win men to religion.†

A Virginian church-yard on a Sunday, resembles rather a race-ground than a sepulchral-ground; the ladies come to it in carriages, and the men after dismounting from their horses make them fast to the trees. But the steeples to the Virginian churches were designed not for utility, but ornament; for the bell is always suspended to a tree a few

* A Run is the American for a Rivulet.

[t" Weems, the biographer of many heroes, in whose hands the trumpet of fame never sounded an uncertain blast”— Rector of Pohick Church, Fairfax County-best known as the author of The Life of George Washington: with curious anecdotes, equally honorable to himself, and exemplary to his young countryman. Duyckinck, Vol. I, p. 484.]

[Cf. Bayard, Voyage dans l'intérieur des Etats-Unis, á Bath, Winchester, dans la Valleé de Shenandoah etc., etc., pendant l'été de 1791. 2o éd. Paris. 1798. p. 168.- Le lendemain, j'allai au temple avec tous les voyageurs: c'était un édifice en bois, autour duquel on voyait rangés des chevaux de prix, enharnachés avec luxe. Les galeries étaient pleines de

yards from the church. It is also observable, that the gate to the church-yard is ever carefully locked by the sexton, who retires last; so that had Hervey and Gray been born in America, the Preacher of Peace could not have indulged in his Meditations among the Tombs; nor the Poet produced the Elegy that has secured him immortality.

Wonder and ignorance are ever reciprocal. I was confounded on first entering the churchyard at Powheek to hear

Steed threaten steed with high and boastful neigh. Nor was I less stunned with the rattling of carriage-wheels, the cracking of whips, and the vociferations of the gentlemen to the negroes who accompanied them. But the discourse of Parson 'ems calmed every perturbation; for he preached the great doctrines of salvation, as one who had experienced their power. It was easy to discover that he felt what he said; and indeed so uniform was his piety, that he might have applied to himself the words of the prophet: "My mouth shall

négresses et de noirs endimanchés. Dans le bas, se trouvaient leurs mâitres et maitresses, dont l'extérieur annonçait que tous étaient pénétrés de la sainteté du lieu, et de la solennité de la cérémonie. En revenant du temple, j'observai que les portes des maisons étaient fermées: elles le furent pendant tout le jour. Mde B- et ses filles se retirèrent après le diner, pour lire quelques chapitres de l'ancien et du nouveau testament: c'est ainsi que dans toutes les villes des États-Unis on célèbre le jour du dimanche."]

"be telling of the righteousness and salvation "of Christ all the day long; for I know no end "thereof."

In his youth, Mr. Wems accompanied some young Americans to London, where he prepared himself by diligent study for the profession of the church.* After being some months in the metropolis, it was remarked by his companions, that he absented himself from their society towards the close of the day; and conjecturing that the motive of his disappearing arose either from the heat of lust, or a proneness to liquor, they determined to watch his conduct. His footsteps were traced, and they found him descending into a wretched cellar that augured no good. But their suspicions were soon changed on following him into his subterranean apartment. They found him exhorting to repentance a poor wretch, who was once the gayest of the gay, and flatered by the multitude, but now languishing on a death bed, and deserted by the world. He was reproving him tenderly, privately, and with all due humility; but holding out to him the consolation of the sacred text, that his sins, red as scarlet, would become by contrition white as snow, and that there was more joy in the angels of heaven over one sinner that

[* The Bishop of London was the Diocesan of Virginia before the Revolution. Parson Weems was in London for his studies after 1781.]

repented, than over ninety-nine persons whose conduct had been unerring.

Of the congregation of Powheek Church, about one half was composed of white people, and the other of negroes. Among many of the negroes were to be discovered the most satisfying evidences of sincere piety; an artless simplicity, passionate aspiration after Christ; and an earnest endeavour to know and do the will of God.*

After church I made my salutations to Parson Wems, and having turned the discourse to divine worship, I asked him his opinion of the piety of the blacks. "Sir," said he,

no people in this country prize the Sabbath. "more seriously than the trampled-upon

negroes. They are swift to hear; they seem "to hear as for their lives. They are wakeful, "serious, reverent, and attentive in God's house; and gladly embrace opportunities of hearing his word. Oh! it is sweet preaching, "when people are desirous of hearing! Sweet feeding the flock of Christ, when they "have so good an appetite!"

How, Sir, did you like my preaching? Sir, cried I, it was a sermon to pull down the

[* Cf. Dr. Coke's Journals &c. London. 1793, p. 18,—“I sometimes give notice immediately after preaching, that in a little time Harry will preach to the blacks; but the whites always stay to hear him. Sometimes I publish him to preach at candle-light, as the Negroes can better attend at that time. I really believe he is one of the best preachers in the world."]