pieces of field-furniture, ferving all the offices of hatchet, pipe, and fword; neither are the Indians lefs expert at throwing it than using it near, but will kill at a confiderable distance.

They are of a very gentle and amicable difpofition to those they think their friends, but as implacable in their enmity, their revenge being only compleated in the entire deftruction of their enemies. They were pretty hofpitable to all white strangers, till the Europeans encouraged them to fcalp; but the great reward offered has led them often fince to commit as great barbarities on us, as they formerly only treated their most inveterate enemies with. They are very hardy, bearing heat, cold, hunger and thirst, in a furprising manner; and yet no people are given to more excefs in eating and drinking, when it is conveniently in their power: the follies, nay mifchief, they commit when inebriated, are entirely laid to the liquor; and no one will revenge any injury (murder excepted) received from one who is no more himself: they are not lefs addicted to gaming than drinking, and will even lose the shirt off their back, rather than give over play, when luck runs against them.'

Of the genius of these Indians, our Author conceived no mean opinion. They are fond of speaking well, as that paves the way to power in their councils. Their language, he fays, is not unpleafant, but vaftly afpirated, and the accents fo many and various, you would often imagine them finging in their common difcourfe.' He has given us fome fpecimens of their harangues, and a poetical tranflation of one of their war-fongs; but what dependance can we place on thefe, without a knowlege of their originals? with refpect to their tunes, he fays, they often compole both them and the fong off-hand, according to the occafion; fome of the tunes he thought extremely pretty, being very like the Scotch.'

The Indians being all foldiers, mechanism can make but little progrefs; befides this, they labour under the difadvantage of having neither proper tools, or perfons to teach the use of thofe they have thus, for want of faws, they are obliged to cut a large tree on each fide, with great labour, to make a very clumfy board; whereas a pair of fawyers would divide the fame tree into eight or ten in much less time: confidering this difadvantage, their modern houses are tolerably well built. A number of thick pofts are fixed in the ground, according to the plan and dimenfions of the houfe, which rarely exceeds fixteen feet in breadth, on account of the roofing, but often extend to fixty or feventy in length, befide the little hot-houfc. Between each of these pofts is placed a fmaller one, and the whole wattled with twigs like a basket, which is then covered with clay very fmooth, and fometimes white-washed. Instead of tiles, they cover them with narrow boards. Some of these houses are

I

two

two Itory high, tolerably pretty and capacious; but most of them very inconvenient for want of chimneys, a small hole being all the vent affigned in many for the smoke to get out at.

• Their canoes are the next work of any confequence; they are generally made of a large pine or poplar, from thirty to forty feet long, and about two broad, with flat bottoms and fides, and both ends alike; the Indians hollow them now with the tools they get from the Europeans, but formerly did it by fire: they are capable of carrying about fifteen or twenty men, are very light, and can by the Indians, fo great is their skill in managing them, be forced up a very ftrong current, particularly the bark canoes; but these are seldom used but by the northern Indians.'

They have two forts of clay, red and white, with both which they make excellent veffels, fome of which will stand the greatest heat. They have now learnt to few, and the men as well as women, excepting fhirts, make all their own cloaths; the women, likewife, make very pretty belts, and collars of beads and wampum, alfo belts and garters of worsted. In arts, however, as in war, they are greatly excelled by their northern neighbours.

Their chief trade is with thofe Europeans with whom they are in alliance, in hides, furs, &c. which they barter by the pound, for all other goods; by that means fupplying the deficiency of money. But no proportion is kept to their value; what coft two fhillings in England, and what coft two pence, are often fold for the fame price; befides that, no attention is paid to the goodness, and a knife of the beft temper and workmanfhip will only fell for the fame price as an ordinary one. The reafon of this is, that, in the beginning of the commerce, the Indians finding themselves greatly impofed upon, fixed a price on each article, according to their own judgment.'

Though fuperftition reigns triumphantly among them, yet, happily for these poor people, it is unaccompanied by its usual concomitant, perfecution: the bane and difgrace of more enlightened nations! As to religion, fays Mr. T. every one is at liberty to think for himself; whence flows a diversity of opinions amongft those that do think, but the major part do not give themselves that trouble. They generally concur, however, in the belief of one fuperior Being, who made them, and governs all things, and are therefore never discontent at any miffortune, because they fay, the Man above would have it fo. They believe in a reward and punishment, as may be evinced by their answer to Mr. Martin, who, having preached scripture till both his audience and he were heartily tired, was told at laft, that they knew very well, that, if they were good, they fhould go up; if bad, down; that he could tell no more; that

he had long plagued them with what they noways understood, and that they defired him to depart the country. This, probably, was at the inftigation of their conjurers, to whom these people pay a profound regard; as Chriftianity was entirely oppofite, and would foon difpoffefs the people of their implicit belief in their juggling art, which the profeffors have brought to fo great perfection as to deceive Europeans, much more an ignorant race, whofe ideas will naturally augment the extraordinary of any thing the leaft above their comprehenfion, or out of the common tract. After this I need not fay that in every particular they are extremely fuperftitious, that and ignorança going always hand in hand.

They have few religicus ceremonies, or ftated times of general worthip the green corn dance feems to be the principal, which is, as I have been told, performed in a very folemn manner, in a large fquare before the town-houfe door; the motion here is very flow, and the fong in which they offer thanks to God for the corn he has fent them, far from unpleafing. There is no kind of rites or ceremonies at marriage, courtship and all being concluded in half an hour, without any other celebration, and it is as little binding as ceremonious; for though many laft till death, efpecially when there are children, it is common for a person to change three or four times a-year.'

To the honour of the female fex, however, we find, that notwithstanding what has been faid of their freedom from matrimonial fackles, the women are here, as every where else, much more to thful to their nuptial engagements than the men are.. Our Author relates an inftance of the remarkable fidelity of fome Indian wives, who had Furopean hufbands, among our foldiers, in the garrison of Fort Loudoun. Our Readers cannot have forgot the late memorable fiege and blockade of that fort, by the enemy Indians, under Willanawaw. The garrifon being reduced to great diftrefs, for want of provifions, and feveral of our foldiers having Indian wives, thefe faithful creatures went out every day, and brought them continual fupplies, notwithstanding Willanawaw threatned them with death for fo doing. Thefe heroines, nevertheless, perfifted in this method of foraging; braving the vengeance of the enemy chief, who certainly had it in his power to cut them off, every day. But they boidly declared to him, that they would continue to fuccour their hufbands; and reminded him, that fhould he kill them, their relations would make his death atone for theirs.' Willanawaw was too fenfible of the force of this argument, to put his threats

No great inconveniency arifes, it feems, from this cuftom, as the wives are allowed feparate property; which also prevents their being left deditute, at the death of their husbands.

in

in execution; fo that the garrifon fubfifted a long time on the provifions brought to them in this manner.

When the Indian husband and wife part, the children go with and are provided for by, the mother. As foon as a child is born, which is generally without help, it is dipped into cold water and washed, which is repeated every morning for two years afterward, by which the children acquire fuch strength, that no ricketty or deformed are found amongst them. When the woman recovers, which is at latest in three days, fhe carries it herself to the river to wash it; but though three days is the longest time of their illness, a great number of them are not fo many hours; nay, I have known a woman delivered at the fide of a river, wash her child, and come home with it in one hand, and a goard full of water in the other.'

In fpeaking of their government, if it be proper to call that a government which hath neither law nor power for its fupport, our Author informs us, that the ftory of the Amazons is here realized; many of the Cherokee ladies being both famous in war, and powerful in the council.-Speaking of the honorary titles among the Indian warriors, Mr. Timberlake gives the following account, which may be fatisfactory to many readers of the paragraphs from North-America, commonly inferted in our news-papers, viz.

Thefe titles are ufually conferred in reward of fome great action. The first is Outacity*, or Outacitee; which, if we miftake not, was the name by which Mr. Timberlake's friend, Oneflaco, was generally called, when in England: which muft have been erroneous, as that chief was diftinguished by an appellation of lefs terrible import, which we fhall come to, prefently.

The second title, adds the Author, is Colena, or the Raven. Old warriors likewife, or war-women, who can no longer go to war, but have diftinguished themselves in their younger days, have the title of Beloved. This is the only title females can enjoy; but it abundantly recompences them, by the power they acquire by it, which is fo great, that they can, by the wave of a fwan's wing, deliver a wretch condemned by the council, and already tied to the stake.'

The title of Little Carpenter, we find, was given to AttakulJakulla, from his excelling in building houfes; and that of Judd's Friend, to Oftenaco, from his faving a man named Judd, (an European, we fuppofe) from the fury of his countrymen. The former of thefe has greatly fignalized himself by his policy and negociations, rather than by his military exploits while the latter hath been equally diftinguished, both in war and

The Man-killer.

peace. There is another chief among the Cherokees, who, from the account here given of him, is perhaps as great a genius as our celebrated John Duke of Marlborough. This perfon is Oconneftoto, furnamed the Great Warriour; of whom it is related, that, in all his expeditions, his measures were fo prudently taken, that he never loft one man!

As fome readers may think it a little extraordinary to hear our Author talk of policy among thefe barbarians, as we deem them, he makes the following fenfible remark on this fubject: Though, fays he, I own their views are not fo clear and refined as thofe of European ftatefmen, their alliance with the French feems equal, proportioning the lights of favages and Europeans, to our moft mafterly ftrokes of policy; and yet we cannot be furprized at it, when we confider that merit alone creates their minifters, and not the prejudices of party, which often create ours.

The English are now fo nigh, and encroached daily fo far upon them, that they not only felt the bad effects of it in their hunting grounds, which were fpoiled, but had all the reafon in the world to apprehend being fwallowed up, by fo potent neighbours, or driven from the country, inhabited by their fathers, in which they were born, and brought up, in fine, their native foil, for which all men have a particular tenderness and affection. The French lay farther off, and were not fo powerful; from them, therefore, they had lefs to fear. The keeping thefe foreigners then more upon a footing, as a check upon one another, was providing for their own fafety, and that of all America, fince they forefaw, or the French took care to shew them, that, fhould they be driven out, the English would in time extend themselves over all North America.'

. Our Author now proceeds to give a farther account of the cuftoms and manners of thefe Indians; and in particular of their games and amufements; after which, we come to his detail of the manner of his leaving the Cherokee country; of the motives which led Oftenaco to undertake his voyage to England, in which Mr. Timberlake was prevailed on to bear him company; the impolitic, inhofpitable reception which this chief and his attendants met with here; their departure; and the Author's reflections on the poffible unhappy confequences of their voyage. Moft unhappy, however, were the confequences, to poor Lieut. Henry Timberlake; for, having never been rewarded for the fervices he endeavoured to render his country, by his vifit to the Cherokees, nor even fully reimburfed the expences he had incurred by accompanying Oftenaco to England, and providing him and his attendants with neceffaries, our unfortunate Author became fo great a fufferer, and fo reduced in his circumstances, that (after undergoing a variety of difappointments, vexations,

arrefts