What more can they want? Is not that happiness enough? See how he retires, great and content, after having visited his children with light, heat, and universal good!

"Oh Grand Spirit! sleep not long in the gloomy West, but return and call the people once again to light and life; to light and life; to light and life!"

"This was also succeeded by dances and songs of praise, which lasted till eleven o'clock, at which hour they repaired to rest, some retiring to the huts that formed their camp, and others to the vicinity of fires made in the woods and along the river's banks. I took up my abode with a French settler in the village. I could understand that the Indians have four similar festivals in the year; one for every season. They distinguish them by the name of "Days of Adoration." When the sun does not shine or appear on the adoration-day, an immense fire is erected, around which the ceremonies are performed with equal devotion and care."

The Natchez Indians are also worshippers of the sun, to which they formerly offered human sacrifices. This practice being forbidden by the United States, the Indians now make offerings of the most valuable articles they possess. The citizens of Natchez live in the highest style of luxury: who would expect on the banks of the Mississippi and in the territory of the Chactaw Indians, to have three courses and a dessert for dinner, served upon solid plate, where a negro magnificently dressed, stands behind every chair, and where the air is kept in circulation by girls, who are employed in pulling fans suspended from the ceiling of the room? There are many cotton plantations here, which yield from five to 20,000 dollars a year. The licentiousness of the citizens of Natchez is proverbial.

At New Orleans Mr. Ashe has arrived at the close of his voyage; this city is the capital of Louisiana. It extends nearly a mile along the ver, and is more than the third of

a mile in breadth from the river to the rampart. The city and suburb contain fifteen hundred houses, and including the garrison and Africans, a population of fifteen thousand souls. Most of the houses have open galleries and gardens abounding with flowering shrubs, and rich-bearing orange trees. Numerous country seats embellish the environs, and serve as a retreat for the more opulent citizens during the sickly season, which happens between the months of August and November. Whatever is rich and rare in the most desirable climates of Europe, says Mr. Ashe, seems to be the spontaneous production of the neighbourhood of this city and of the country in ge neral. Still, however, the swamps and marshes, contiguous to the sea, generate an unwholesome atmosphere, which is brought hither and sheds havoc, particularly among strangers. Notwithstanding the periodical visitations which devastate this city, there is reason to believe that it may rival every other of America in philosophy and power. It is the depôt of all the various wealth and productions of countries extending from it in every direction, from two to three thousand miles. By canals and lakes it receives the produce of the two Floridas and the Tenassee State: the wealth of the west of Pennsylva nia, of the Kentucky and Ohio States, and the Indiana territory, are conveyed to it by the Ohio. The trade of the Lakes finds its way to it by the Illinois river, and that of the North-west by the Missouri. From New Mexico it receives various productions by means of Indian communication, and navigable streams which fall into the gulph. From the Floridas it receives skins, logwood, dollars, from Tenassee and Georgia, cotton, tobacco, &c. from the upper parts of the Ohio it receives provisions,

:

ART. VI. A Voyage to the Demerary, containing a statistical Account of the Settlements there, and of those on the Essequebo, the Berbice, and other contiguous Rivers of Guyana. By HENRY BOLINGBROKE, ESQ. of Norwich, Deputy Vendue Master at Surinam. 4to. pp. 400.

posed, and (as he declares in the preface) were abandoned at the peace of Amiens, with a levity which lowered the character of our statesmen for information.

The first chapter contains an account of Mr. Bolingbroke's voyage. He sets sail from England, touches at Cork, passes Madeira, and arrives safely at Demerary. Our author is not contented with a dry de. tail of the occurrences of his voyage, such as the winds and the waves, sea-sickness and salt meat thirst; he spangles his narrative with observations on politics, medicine, and dress; from the most trifling occurrence he extracts important reflections, and en passant throws you a bit of advice about the impolicy of the Navigation Laws, and the fermentation of wine, about the pernicious restraint of the colonial breed of cattle, and the most convenient dress for tropical climates.

Our author's first landing at Stabroek is described with that picturesque distinctness of local observation, which deserves extraction and forbids condensation.

"We landed about noon at the American wharf. It spread like wild-fire that we were from one of the vessels just arrived; and our captain was soon surrounded by the whole band of hucksters and pedlars belonging to the town. Here were blacks, yellows, and tawnies, bawling and vociferating in a wretched jargon, half Dutch and half English, whether we had any thing to sell-each trying to hitch himself closer than his neighbour. Not liking to be inclosed within this stifling ring of people, I took an opportunity of slipping between a stout mulatto woman and a negro butcher six feet high, leaving Captain Barrow in the midst of his assurances that he had plenty of goods for sale. Seeing some fine oranges I asked for six-pennyworth; the negress gave me thirty. I was obliged to call in the aid of my handkerchief and pockets to contain them. This was a scene which stamped me as a new comer. Several negroes standing by offered to carry the oranges for me. Others ANN. REV. VOL. VII.

greeted me on my arrival with "How d'ye
massa? You come from Buchra Country
no? Buchra Country Good!"

"Stabroek was to me quite a new sight
I recollected no English town which bore
the least resemblance. It stands on the
tawny children were plunging about like
flat strand, and canals, where black and
didappers, inclose the main-street: while
and balconies shaded by a projecting roof,
wooden houses, with colonnaded porticoes
are orderly arranged between spacious in-
tervals in three parallel lines. They are
seldom above two story high: they stand
on low brick foundations, and are roofed
with a red wood, which I took for maho-
gany. No where the glitter of a glass
casement; Venetian blinds, or jealousees
as they are called by the inhabitants, close
all directions to catch the luxury of a tho-
every window; and the rooms project in
rough draft of air, so that the ground-plan
of a dwelling is mostly in the shape of a
cross. There are no trees in the streets
as in Holland; the town would have been
pleasanter with this imitation of the old
country; but casks and bales lie about, as

if

every road was a wharf, and numerous warehouses are intermingled with the of wood. Blacks clad only with a blue dwellings. Even the public buildings are pantaloon, or with a mere towel of checking supported by a string about the loins, there a white man in a muslin shirt, and come to perform every office. Here and gingham trowsers is seefi smoaking his segar, and giving directions from under an umbrella to his sable messengers; or is led about in a phaeton drawn by ponies to super intend the shipping of his goods. A noonday sultriness and silence prevail every motion is performed with such tranquillity for fear of kicking up a dust, that one would suppose the very labourers at work in a church during service.

The

"Being now overtaken by Captain Bar-
row, who came blowing and puffing from
the fatiguingly warm reception he met
with on his landing, we were conducted
to the merchant with whom I was destined
to reside. The first refreshment offered
me was Madeira wine and water.
water was clear and cool, and a great lux-
ury. I had not tasted such all the voyage;
I had not cared for such all my life before.
It was rain-water, I found, preserved in a
wooden cistern, and purified by dropping
through a filtering stone.

E

The river

water is brackish. and there are no good springs near Stabroek.

"I next retired to cleanse myself from the make-shift habits of the voyage. A shower-bath was offered me, which I accepted. I got into an upright square tub or cistern; and a negress watered me like a transplanted cucumber. The accommodations for bathing are unworthy of the climate. In all fevers and especially in that which Europeans call the seasoning, bathing is the most essential remedy. For luxury, for neatness, it is a most valuable pastime. By the time I had unpacked, washed, and dressed, dinner was ready, namely at five.

"A dinner at Stabroek is a sort of mer

cantile medley of the imitable parts of the

manners of remote nations. There was

soup to begin with as in France, and salted ling to begin with as in Holland: there was an English huge joint of beef and a couple of Moscovy ducks: there was an Italian desert of Bologna sausages and sallad, anchovies and olives: there was fruit of all kinds, pine-apples, guavas, oranges, shaddocks and avoiras. Wine was taken during the repast, and porter between the courses, for a bonne-bouche.

"At dusk, spermaceti candles were lighted, and placed within large cones of glass, to prevent the wind from blowing them aside. Segars were offered to us at the whist table, and most of the party smoaked and drank coffee. A hammock protected by a gauze curtain against the mosquitoes, was allotted me to sleep in, until beds could be put up."

Our author, a few days after his arrival at Stabroek, sailed up the river to one of the principal estates belonging to the house with which he was connected. The river narrowed as he advanced, the banks were completely cultivated with sugar, coffee, plaintains, cocoa, and rice; and the country on each side appeared so completely flat, that it would seem as if the Dutch had chosen it that they might enjoy the luxury of partial associations. Our author was received at the estate, and entertained with that sumptuousness which bespoke the opulence of the owner. After a short excursion farther up the

river for purposes of pleasure, he returns to Stabroek. Stabroek is built on the east side of the Demerary, and contains 1500 whites, 2000 free people of colour, and 5000 negroes. There are no taverns nor receptacles for strangers, new comers bring letters of introduction: the fixed inhabitants are hospitable, and consequently a merchant's house is eternally filled with strangers, who suit the length of their visits to the demands of their convenience. The inhabitants rise at six, breakfast on coffee, meat, till four, dine at five, and spend wine, and fruit, transact business the rest of the day at a loungingroom called the Exchange. For bells whistles are substituted, of which every gentleman carries one in his pocket, to call the servants by. À European, as soon as he arrives at the colony, buys a female, who is to perform the duties of a housekeeper, and, if we except presiding at table, of a wife. These females are said to be industrious and faithful, and extravagant in nothing but in decorating their persons. The children of these women are often sent to England for education, and then return. to the colony to practise the trade which they have acquired. These sable substitutes for wives are not the growth of the Continent, but are usually imported from Barbadoes and other islands, where more grow than can be consumed by the inhabitants.

The European inhabitants consist of Dutch, Germans, Prussians, Russians, Swedes, Danes, Spaniards, French,who with the Americans, form about one third of the population, the English making up the other two thirds. The manners and habits of the Dutch colonists are detailed with much minuteness and picturesque liveliness. This part of the book is too long to quote, and too good to condense.

"There is a market-place where the negroes assemble to sell their truck, such as fruit, vegetables, fowls, eggs, and where the hucksters expose for sale articles of European manufacture (much in the same manner as the pedlars do in England) in addition to salt beef, pork, and fish, bread, cheese, pipes, tobacco, and other articles, in small quantities, to enable the negroes to supply themselves agreeably to the length of their purses Hucksters are free women of color, who purchase their commodities of merchants at two or three months credit, and retail them out in the manner

old to need such labourers, but who would find themselves rewarded in the colonies of Guiana, where society is too young to do without them. Mutton sells for 3s. veal for

2s. 6d. beef for 2s. Id and pork for 10d. per pound. The houses are built of wood, two or three stories high; they have no fires, the place for cooking being separate from the dwelling-house. A good house in or near Stabrvek lets for three, four, or five hundred pounds yearly. A negro carpenter or mason earns from five to ten shil

described. Many of them are, indeed, wealthy, and possess ten, fitteen, and twenty negroes, all of whom they employ lings a day: lime is brought from in this traffic. It is by no means an uncommon thing for negroes in this line to Europe, and as may eas ly be supbe travelling about the country for several posed, is enormously expensive. weeks together, sometimes with an attend- "A house" (says our author) “ of ant, having trunks of goods to a considera- 40 feet long and 28 wide, to be ble amount, say two hundred pounds, and well finished with out-buildings, when a good opportunity offers, they remit two stories high, with an attic, and to their mistresses what money they have raised on a brick foundation eight taken. It is really surprising what a large feet high, costs here two thousand sum is thus returned by these people going five hundred pounds, besides the from one estate to another. The permis- lot of land, which costs two hunsion of the manager on every plantation is dred pounds more." At Stabroek always necessary, before the huckster venthere is an English and a Dutch tures to the negro houses, where the barclergyman, they both use the same place of worship, and when one has satisfied his congregation, he and his flock make room for the other. The laws and the titles of the magistrates are Dutch. The form of government and its various ramifications are described with great minuteness; but for these we must refer our readers to the work itself, and pass on to the fifth chapter, whichcontains an interesting account of the state of the negroes,and reflections on the most probable modes of contributing to their comfort according to our author's observation.

gains are made. Those that have not money barter their fowls, pigs, segars, for what they stand in need of. The hucksters are provided with such an assortment as to be able to supply the negro with a coarse check, or the manager with a fine cambric, for his shirts. Coloured women of all descriptions are extravagantly fond of dress: but those resident in the country, not have ing such an opportunity as the Stabroek ladies of seeing every thing new as it arrives, feel a lively sensation of joy and pleasure at the sight of a huckster, and anticipate the pleasure of tumbling over the contents of her trunk; and if it contains any new articles of fashion, their hearts beat high with wishes to obtain them. If a joe or dollar be still remaining, it is sure to go: should their purse be empty, they make no hesitation in asking for credit: such is the general character and conduct of coloured women."

Our author invites the European Jews over to Guiana, who are useless in Europe, where society is too

When a slave is purchased he acquires a right of settlement on the estate to which he is attached, and is maintained, whether he is able to work or not. All the old estates have reared negroes to the third or fourth generation. When an estate has been cultivated for

7