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others. Their union has rendered them victorious over the Chac taws, and formidable to all the nations around them. They are a well-made, expert, hardy, fagacious, politic people, extremely jealous of their rights, and averfe to parting with their lands. They have abundance of tame cattle and fwine, turkeys, ducks, and other poultry; they cultivate tobacco, rice, Indian corn, potatoes, beans, peas, cabbage, melons, and have plenty of peaches, plums, grapes, ftrawberries, and other fruits. They are faithful friends, but inveterate enemies; hofpitable to ftrangers, and honeft and fair in their dealings. No nation has a more contemptible opinion of the white men's faith in general than thefe people, yet they place great confi dence in the United States, and wifi to agree with them upon a permanent boundary, over which the fouthern States fhall not trefpafs.

The country which they claim is bounded northward by about the 34th degree of latitude, and extends from the Tombeckbee, or Mobile river, to the Atlantic ocean, though they have ceded a part of this tract on the fea coaft, by different treaties, to the State of Georgia. Their principal towns lie in latitude 32°, and longitude 11° 20' from Philadelphia. They are fettled in a hilly but not mountainous country; the foil is fruitful in a high degree, and well watered, abounding in creeks and rivulets, from whence they are called the Creek Indians.*

The Chactaws, or flat heads, inhabit a very fine and extensive tract of hilly country, with large and fertile plains intervening, between the Alabama and Milliffippi rivers, in the western part of this State. The nation had, not many years ago, forty-three towns and villages, in three divifions, containing twelve thoufand one hundred and twenty-three fouls, of which four thoufand and forty-one were fighting men.

The Chickafaws are fettled on the head branches of the Tombeckbee, Mobile, and Yazoo rivers, in the north-weft corner of the

* General McGillivray, the celebrated chief of the Creeks, is a half-blooded Indian, bis mother being a woman of high rank in the Creek nation. He was fo highly ef cemed among them, that they in a formal manner elted him their fovereign, and vefted him with confiderable powers. He has feveral fifters married to leading men among the Creeks. This gentleman would gladly have remained a citizen of the United States; but having served under the British during the late war, his property in Georgia, which was confiderable, was confifcated. This circumftance induced him to retire among his friends the Creeks, fince which he has been an active and zealous partifan in interefts and police.

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State. Their country is an extenfive plain, tolerably well watered from fprings, and of a pretty good foil. They have seven towns, the central one of which is in latitude 34° 23', and longitude 14° 30′ weft. The number of fouls in this nation have been formerly reckoned at one thousand seven hundred and twenty-five, of which five hundred and feventy-five were fighting men.

WE have now with candour and a fincere attachment to truth, fketched the hiftory of the several States in the federal union. In order to keep within the bounds profcribed in the plan first proposed, the accounts are reftrained as far as poffible to thofe fubjects which we confidered of the greatest importance, and we have aimed fo to arrange the various fubjects as we trust will afford a fatisfactory anfwer to every queftion which the European inquirer may put refpecting the government, commerce, fociety, learning, &c. of the United States. To have entered into a minute detail of every object that presented itself to our view would have been comparatively useless, it might have gratified the curiofity of a few, but the benefits would have been comparatively small to the public. To this we may add, that many of the scenes would have been fhifting while under defcription, and the ob ject in itself impracticable with respect to some of the States. In fut ther pursuing our plan, we fhall endeavour,

ift. To point out a few of the many advantages which America poffeffes over the different countries of Europe.

2d. What the advantages and profpects are which an European fettler has prefented to his view. Under this latter head we shall aim to convey all the information we can obtain that may prove advantageous in the paffage to, or on the arrival'at, what we must call a LAND OF LIBERTY.

OF

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POLYMETRIC TABLE OF A

CORRECTED AND IMPROVED,

Shewing the DISTANCES between the PRINCI

N. B. The distance in British miles, between two places, fquare at the interfcction of the lines, drawn both ways, as for example, the diftance from Bofiori to Williamsburg Charleston to aebec 1396 miles

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243 168

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Falls of Niagara, P_580 496 425 380 622 225]

Ofwego,

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WILLIAMSBURGH, Virginia 534 754 972 346 30
Winchester, Virginia 174 708 92818
51 259 16

ST. AUGUSTINE, Eaft-Florida 1726 1100 105

SAVANNAH, Georgia 220 1506 880 831

1131

922 1286

911

702 1066

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OF THE

ADVANTAGES

WHICH THE UNITED STATES POSSESS OVER EUROPEAN

COUNTRIES.

W

IN RESPECT TO GOVERNMENT.

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HILE the governments of moft countries in Europe are per fectly defpotic, and while those which are not actually fuch, appear to be verging fast towards it, the government of America is making rapid ftrides toward perfection; it being contrary to all the old go. vernments, in the hands of the people, they have exploded those principles by the operation of which civil and religious difqualifications and oppreffions have been inflicted on mankind, and rejecting MERE TOLERATION, they have, with a small exception, placed upon an equal footing every church fect, and fociety of religious perfons whatfoever.

Their laws and government have for their bafis the natural and imprefcriptible rights of man: liberty, fecurity of perfon and property, refiftance against oppreffion, doing whatever does not injure another, a right to concur, either perfonally or by their reprefentatives, in the formation of laws, and an equal chance of arriving to places of honour, reward, or employment, according to their vir tues or talents. These are the principles of their constitution; and laws grafted upon thefe fimple, but fubftantial principles, and a fyftem of legal jurifprudence organized, and acting accordingly, form the effence of their government; and if ever the government fwerves materially from thefe fundamental principles, the compact is diffolved, and things revert again to a co-equal ftate. By this plain definition of the nature of laws and government, every capacity, and every individual of the community, can judge with precifion of the purity of legiflation; this produces the most entire conviction in the minds of all men, of the neceffity there is of acting, in every inftance, according to the code of reafon and truth. Every VOL. III.

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