Chapter XXI: Part I: Notes on Virginia (4)

DEAR SIR,--Mr. Tazewell has communicated to me the inquiries
you have been so kind as to make, relative to a passage
in the "Notes on Virginia," which has lately excited some
newspaper publications. I feel, with great sensibility,
the interest you take in this business, and with pleasure,
go into explanations with one whose objects I know to be
truth and justice alone. Had Mr. Martin thought proper
to suggest to me, that doubts might be entertained of the
transaction respecting Logan, as stated in the "Notes on
Virginia," and to inquire on what grounds that statement
was founded, I should have felt myself obliged by the
inquiry; have informed him candidly of the grounds, and
cordially have co-operated in every means of investigating
the fact, and correcting whatsoever in it should be found
to have been erroneous. But he chose to step at once into
the newspapers, and in his publications there and the
letters he wrote to me, adopted a style which forbade the
respect of an answer. Sensible, however, that no act of
his could absolve me from the justice due to others, as
soon as I found that the story of Logan could be doubted,
I determined to inquire into it as accurately as the
testimony remaining, after a lapse of twenty odd years,
would permit, and that the result should be made known,
either in the first new edition which should be printed of
the "Notes on Virginia," or by publishing an appendix. I
thought that so far as that work had contributed to impeach
the memory of Cresap, by handing on an erroneous charge it
was proper it should be made the vehicle of retribution.
Not that I was at all the author of the injury; I had
only concurred, with thousands and thousands of others,
in believing a transaction on authority which merited
respect. For the story of Logan is only repeated in the
"Notes on Virginia," precisely as it had been current for
more than a dozen years before they were published. When
Lord Dunmore returned from the expedition against the
Indians, in 1774, he and his officers brought the speech
of Logan, and related the circumstances of it. These were
so affecting, and the speech itself so fine a morsel of
eloquence, that it became the theme of every conversation,
in Williamsburg particularly, and generally, indeed,
wheresoever any of the officers resided or resorted. I
learned it in Williamsburg, I believe at Lord Dunmore's;
and I find in my pocket-book of that year (1774) an entry
of the narrative, as taken from the mouth of some person,
whose name, however, is not noted, nor recollected,
precisely in the words stated in the "Notes on Virginia."
The speech was published in the Virginia Gazette of that
time, (I have it myself in the volume of gazettes of that
year,) and though it was the translation made by the common
interpreter, and in a style by no means elegant, yet it
was so admired, that it flew through all the public papers
of the continent, and through the magazines and other
periodical publications of Great Britain; and those who
were boys at that day will now attest, that the speech
of Logan used to be given them as a school exercise for
repetition. It was not till about thirteen or fourteen
years after the newspaper publications, that the "Notes on
Virginia" were published in America. Combating, in these,
the contumelious theory of certain European writers, whose
celebrity gave currency and weight to their opinions, that
our country from the combined effects of soil and climate,
degenerated animal nature, in the general, and particularly
the moral faculties of man, I considered the speech of
Logan as an apt proof of the contrary, and used it as
such; and I copied, verbatim, the narrative I had taken
down in 1774, and the speech as it had been given us in a
better translation by Lord Dunmore. I knew nothing of the
Cresaps, and could not possibly have a motive to do them
an injury with design. I repeated what thousands had done
before, on as good authority as we have for most of the
facts we learn through life, and such as, to this moment,
I have seen no reason to doubt. That any body questioned
it, was never suspected by me, till I saw the letter of
Mr. Martin in the Baltimore paper. I endeavored then to
recollect who among my contemporaries, of the same circle
of society, and consequently of the same recollections,
might still be alive; three and twenty years of death
and dispersion had left very few. I remembered, however,
that General Gibson was still living, and knew that he
had been the translator of the speech. I wrote to him
immediately. He, in answer, declares to me, that he was
the very person sent by Lord Dunmore to the Indian town;
that, after he had delivered his message there, Logan
took him out to a neighboring wood; sat down with him, and
rehearsing, with tears, the catastrophe of his family, gave
him that speech for Lord Dunmore; that he carried it to
Lord Dunmore; translated it for him; has turned to it in
the Encyclopedia, as taken from the "Notes on Virginia,"
and finds that it was his translation I had used, with
only two or three verbal variations of no importance.
These, I suppose, had arisen in the course of successive
copies. I cite General Gibson's letter by memory, not
having it with me; but I am sure I cite it substantially
right. It establishes unquestionably, that the speech of
Logan is genuine; and that being established, it is Logan
himself who is author of all the important facts. "Colonel
Cresap," says he, "in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered
all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women
and children; there runs not a drop of my blood in the
veins of any living creature." The person and the fact,
in all its material circumstances, are here given by Logan
himself. General Gibson, indeed, says, that the title was
mistaken; that Cresap was a Captain, and not a Colonel.
This was Logan's mistake. He also observes, that it was on
another water of the Ohio, and not on the Kanhaway, that
his family was killed. This is an error which has crept
into the traditionary account; but surely of little moment
in the moral view of the subject. The material question
is, was Logan's family murdered, and by whom? That it
was murdered has not, I believe, been denied; that it was
by one of the Cresaps, Logan affirms. This is a question
which concerns the memories of Logan and Cresap; to the
issue of which I am as indifferent as if I had never heard
the name of either. I have begun and shall continue to
inquire into the evidence additional to Logan's, on which
the fact was founded. Little, indeed, can now be heard
of, and that little dispersed and distant. If it shall
appear on inquiry, that Logan has been wrong in charging
Cresap with the murder of his family, I will do justice
to the memory of Cresap, as far as I have contributed to
the injury, by believing and repeating what others had
believed and repeated before me. If, on the other hand, I
find that Logan was right in his charge, I will vindicate,
as far as my suffrage may go, the truth of a Chief, whose
talents and misfortunes have attached to him the respect
and commiseration of the world.

I have gone, my dear Sir, into this lengthy detail to
satisfy a mind, in the candor and rectitude of which I have
the highest confidence. So far as you may incline to use
the communication for rectifying the judgments of those
who are willing to see things truly as they are, you are
free to use it. But I pray that no confidence which you may
repose in any one, may induce you to let it go out of your
hands, so as to get into a newspaper: against a contest
in that field I am entirely decided. I feel extraordinary
gratification, indeed, in addressing this letter to you,
with whom shades of difference in political sentiment have
not prevented the interchange of good opinion, nor cut off
the friendly offices of society and good correspondence.
This political tolerance is the more valued by me, who
consider social harmony as the first of human felicities,
and the happiest moments, those which are given to the
effusions of the heart. Accept them sincerely, I pray you,
from one who has the honor to be, with sentiments of high
respect and attachment, dear Sir, your most obedient, and
most humble servant.

[41] Has the world as yet produced more than two poets,
acknowledged to be such by all nations? An Englishman only
reads Milton with delight, an Italian, Tasso, a Frenchman,
the Henriade; a Portuguese, Camoens; but Homer and Virgil
have been the rapture of every age and nation; they are
read with enthusiasm in their originals by those who can
read the originals, and in translations by those who cannot.

[42] There are various ways of keeping truth out of sight. Mr.
Rittenhouse's model of the planetary system has the plagiary
application of an Orrery; and the quadrant invented by
Godfrey, an American also, and with the aid of which the
European nations traverse the globe, is called Hadley's
quadrant.

[43] In a later edition of the Abbé Raynal's work, he has
withdrawn his censure from that part of the new world
inhabited by the Federo-Americans; but has left it still
on the other parts. North America has always been more
accessible to strangers than South. If he was mistaken
then as to the former, he may be so as to the latter. The
glimmerings which reach us from South America enable us
to see that its inhabitants are held under the accumulated
pressure of slavery, superstition and ignorance. Whenever
they shall be able to rise under this weight, and to show
themselves to the rest of the world, they will probably
show they are like the rest of the world. We have not yet
sufficient evidence that there are more lakes and fogs in
South America than in other parts of the earth. As little
do we know what would be their operation on the mind
of man. That country has been visited by Spaniards and
Portuguese chiefly, and almost exclusively. These, going
from a country of the old world remarkably dry in its soil
and climate, fancied there were more lakes and fogs in
South America than in Europe. An inhabitant of Ireland,
Sweden, or Finland would have formed the contrary opinion.
Had South America then been discovered and settled by a
people from a fenny country, it would probably have been
represented as much drier than the old world. A patient
pursuit of facts, and cautious combination and comparison
of them, is the drudgery to which man is subjected by his
Maker, if he wishes to attain sure knowledge.

[44] I. 126.

QUERY VII.

_A notice of all that can increase the progress of Human Knowledge?_

Under the latitude of this query, I will presume it not improper nor unacceptable to furnish some data for estimating the climate of Virginia. Journals of observations on the quantity of rain, and degree of heat, being lengthy, confused, and too minute to produce general and distinct ideas, I have taken five years' observations, to wit, from 1772 to 1777, made in Williamsburg and its neighborhood, have reduced them to an average for every month in the year, and stated those averages in the following table, adding an analytical view of the winds during the same period.

The rains of every month, (as of January, for instance,) through the whole period of years, were added separately, and an average drawn from them. The coolest and warmest point of the same day in each year of the period, were added separately, and an average of the greatest cold and greatest heat of that day was formed. From the averages of every day in the month, a general average was formed. The point from which the wind blew, was observed two or three times in every day. These observations, in the month of January, for instance, through the whole period, amounted to three hundred and thirty-seven. At seventy-three of these, the wind was from the north; forty-seven from the north-east, &c. So that it will be easy to see in what proportion each wind usually prevails in each month; or, taking the whole year, the total of observations through the whole period having been three thousand six hundred and ninety-eight, it will be observed that six hundred and eleven of them were from the north, five hundred and fifty-eight from the north-east, &c.

------+-------+--------------+-----------------------------------------
|Fall |Least and | WINDS.
|of |greatest +---+----+---+----+---+----+---+----+-----
|rain, |daily heat, by|
|etc., |Fahrenheit's | | | | | | | | |
|in |thermometer. |N. |N.E.| E.|S.E.| S.|S.W.| W.|N.W.|Total.
|inches.| | | | | | | | | |
------+-------+--------------+---+----+---+----+---+----+---+----+------
Jan. | 3.192 | 38½ to 44 | 73| 47 | 32| 10 | 11| 78 | 40| 46 | 337
Feb. | 2.049 | 41 .. 47½ | 61| 52 | 24| 11 | 4| 63 | 30| 31 | 276
March | 3.95 | 48 .. 54½ | 49| 44 | 38| 28 | 14| 83 | 29| 33 | 318
April | 3.68 | 56 .. 62½ | 35| 44 | 54| 19 | 9| 58 | 18| 20 | 257
May | 2.871 | 63 .. 70½ | 27| 36 | 62| 23 | 7| 74 | 32| 20 | 281
June | 3.751 | 71½ .. 78¼ | 22| 34 | 43| 24 | 13| 81 | 25| 25 | 267
July | 4.497 | 77 .. 82½ | 41| 44 | 75| 15 | 7| 95 | 32| 19 | 328
August| 9.153 | 76¼ .. 81 | 43| 52 | 40| 30 | 9|103 | 27| 30 | 334
Sept. | 4.761 | 69½ .. 74¼ | 70| 60 | 51| 18 | 10| 81 | 18| 37 | 345
Oct. | 3.633 | 61¼ .. 66½ | 52| 77 | 64| 15 | 6| 56 | 23| 34 | 327
Nov. | 2.617 | 47¾ .. 53½ | 74| 21 | 20| 14 | 9| 63 | 35| 58 | 294
Dec. | 2.877 | 43 .. 48¾ | 64| 37 | 18| 16 | 10| 91 | 42| 56 | 334
+-------+--------------+---+----+---+----+---+----+---+----+-----
Total.|47.038 | 8 A.M. |611|548 |521|223 |109|926 |351|409 |3,698
| | to 4 P. M. | | | | | | | | |
------+-------+--------------+---+----+---+----+---+----+---+----+-----

Though by this table it appears we have on an average forty-seven inches of rain annually, which is considerably more than usually falls in Europe, yet from the information I have collected, I suppose we have a much greater proportion of sunshine here than there. Perhaps it will be found, there are twice as many cloudy days in the middle parts of Europe, as in the United States of America. I mention the middle parts of Europe, because my information does not extend to its northern or southern parts.

In an extensive country, it will of course be expected that the climate is not the same in all its parts. It is remarkable, that proceeding on the same parallel of latitude westwardly, the climate becomes colder in like manner as when you proceed northwardly. This continues to be the case till you attain the summit of the Alleghany, which is the highest land between the ocean and the Mississippi. From thence, descending in the same latitude to the Mississippi, the change reverses; and, if we may believe travellers, it becomes warmer there than it is in the same latitude on the sea-side. Their testimony is strengthened by the vegetables and animals which subsist and multiply there naturally, and do not on the sea-coast. Thus Catalpas grow spontaneously on the Mississippi, as far as the latitude of 37°, and reeds as far as 38°. Parroquets even winter on the Scioto, in the 39th degree of latitude. In the summer of 1779, when the thermometer was at 90° at Monticello, and 96° at Williamsburg, it was 110° at Kaskaskia. Perhaps the mountain, which overhangs this village on the north side, may, by its reflection, have contributed somewhat to produce this heat. The difference of temperature of the air at the sea-coast, or on the Chesapeake bay, and at the Alleghany, has not been ascertained; but contemporary observations, made at Williamsburg, or in its neighborhood, and at Monticello, which is on the most eastern ridge of the mountains, called the South-West, where they are intersected by the Rivanna, have furnished a ratio by which that difference may in some degree be conjectured. These observations make the difference between Williamsburg and the nearest mountains, at the position before mentioned, to be on an average 6⅓° of Fahrenheit's thermometer. Some allowance, however, is to be made for the difference of latitude between these two places, the latter being 38° 8' 17", which is 52' 22" north of the former. By contemporary observations of between five and six weeks, the averaged and almost unvaried difference of the height of mercury in the barometer, at those two places, was .784 of an inch, the atmosphere at Monticello being so much the lightest, that is to say, about one-thirty-seventh of its whole weight. It should be observed, however, that the hill of Monticello is of five hundred feet perpendicular height above the river which washes its base. This position being nearly central between our northern and southern boundaries, and between the bay and Alleghany, may be considered as furnishing the best average of the temperature of our climate. Williamsburg is much too near the south-eastern corner to give a fair idea of our general temperature.

But a more remarkable difference is in the winds which prevail in the different parts of the country. The following table exhibits a comparative view of the winds prevailing at Williamsburg, and at Monticello. It is formed by reducing nine months' observations at Monticello to four principal points, to wit, the north-east, south-east, south-west, and north-west; these points being perpendicular to, or parallel with our coast, mountains, and rivers; and by reducing in like manner, an equal number of observations, to wit, four hundred and twenty-one from the preceding table of winds at Williamsburg, taking them proportionably from every point:

N.E. S.E. S.W. N.W. Total.
Williamsburg 127 61 132 101 421
Monticello 32 91 126 172 421

By this it may be seen that the south-west wind prevails equally at both places; that the north-east is, next to this, the principal wind towards the sea-coast, and the north-west is the predominant wind at the mountains. The difference between these two winds to sensation, and in fact, is very great. The north-east is loaded with vapor, insomuch, that the salt-makers have found that their crystals would not shoot while that blows; it brings a distressing chill, and is heavy and oppressive to the spirits. The north-west is dry, cooling, elastic, and animating. The eastern and south-eastern breezes come on generally in the afternoon. They have advanced into the country very sensibly within the memory of people now living. They formerly did not penetrate far above Williamsburg. They are now frequent at Richmond, and every now and then reach the mountains. They deposit most of their moisture, however, before they get that far. As the lands become more cleared, it is probable they will extend still further westward.

Going out into the open air, in the temperate, and warm months of the year, we often meet with bodies of warm air, which passing by us in two or three seconds, do not afford time to the most sensible thermometer to seize their temperature. Judging from my feelings only, I think they approach the ordinary heat of the human body. Some of them, perhaps, go a little beyond it. They are of about twenty to thirty feet diameter horizontally. Of their height we have no experience, but probably they are globular volumes wafted or rolled along with the wind. But whence taken, where found, or how generated? They are not to be ascribed to volcanos, because we have none. They do not happen in the winter when the farmers kindle large fires in clearing up their grounds. They are not confined to the spring season, when we have fires which traverse whole counties, consuming the leaves which have fallen from the trees. And they are too frequent and general to be ascribed to accidental fires. I am persuaded their cause must be sought for in the atmosphere itself, to aid us in which I know but of these constant circumstances: a dry air; a temperature as warm, at least, as that of the spring or autumn; and a moderate current of wind. They are most frequent about sun-set; rare in the middle parts of the day; and I do not recollect having ever met with them in the morning.

The variation in the weight of our atmosphere, as indicated by the barometer, is not equal to two inches of mercury. During twelve months' observation at Williamsburg, the extremes 29 and 30.86 inches, the difference being 1.86 of an inch; and in nine months, during which the height of the mercury was noted at Monticello, the extremes were 28.48 and 29.69 inches, the variation being 1.21 of an inch. A gentleman, who has observed his barometer many years, assures me it has never varied two inches. Contemporary observations made at Monticello and Williamsburg, proved the variations in the weight of air to be simultaneous and corresponding in these two places.

Our changes from heat to cold, and cold to heat, are very sudden and great. The mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer has been known to descend from 92° to 47° in thirteen hours.

It was taken for granted, that the preceding table of average heat will not give a false idea on this subject, as it proposes to state only the ordinary heat and cold of each month, and not those which are extraordinary. At Williamsburg, in August 1766, the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer was at 98°, corresponding with 29⅓ of Reaumur. At the same place in January 1780, it was 6°, corresponding with 11½ below zero of Reaumur. I believe[45] these may be considered to be nearly the extremes of heat and cold in that part of the country. The latter may most certainly, as that time York river, at Yorktown, was frozen over, so that people walked across it; a circumstance which proves it to have been colder than the winter of 1740, 1741, usually called the cold winter, when York river did not freeze over at that place. In the same season of 1780, Chesapeake bay was solid, from its head to the mouth of Potomac. At Annapolis, where it is 5¼ miles over between the nearest points of land, the ice was from five to seven inches thick quite across, so that loaded carriages went over on it. Those, our extremes of heat and cold, of 6° and 98°, were indeed very distressing to us, and were thought to put the extent of the human constitution to considerable trial. Yet a Siberian would have considered them as scarcely a sensible variation. At Jenniseitz in that country, in latitude 58° 27', we are told that the cold in 1735 sunk the mercury by Fahrenheit's scale to 126° below nothing; and the inhabitants of the same country use stove rooms two or three times a week, in which they stay two hours at a time, the atmosphere of which raises the mercury to 135° above nothing. Late experiments show that the human body will exist in rooms heated to 140° of Reaumur, equal to 347° of Fahrenheit's, and 135° above boiling water. The hottest point of the twenty-four hours is about four o'clock, P. M., and the dawn of day the coldest.

The access of frost in autumn, and its recess the spring, do not seem to depend merely on the degree of cold; much less on the air's being at the freezing point. White frosts are frequent when the thermometer is at 47°, have killed young plants of Indian corn at 48°, and have been known at 54°. Black frost, and even ice, have been produced at 38½°, which is 6½ degrees above the freezing point. That other circumstances must be combined with this cold to produce frost, is evident from this also, on the higher parts of mountains, where it is absolutely colder than in the plains on which they stand, frosts do not appear so early by a considerable space of time in autumn, and go off sooner in the spring, than in the plains. I have known frosts so severe as to kill the hickory trees round about Monticello, and yet not injure the tender fruit blossoms then in bloom on the top and higher parts of the mountain; and in the course of forty years, during which it had been settled, there have been but two instances of a general loss of fruit on it; while in the circumjacent country, the fruit has escaped but twice in the last seven years. The plants of tobacco, which grow from the roots of those which have been cut off in the summer, are frequently green here at Christmas. This privilege against the frost is undoubtedly combined with the want of dew on the mountains. That the dew is very rare on their higher parts, I may say with certainty, from twelve years' observations, having scarcely ever, during that time, seen an unequivocal proof of its existence on them at all during summer. Severe frosts in the depth of winter prove that the region of dews extends higher in that season than the tops of the mountains; but certainly, in the summer season, the vapors, by the time they attain that height, are so attenuated as not to subside and form a dew when the sun retires.

The weavil has not yet ascended the high mountains.

A more satisfactory estimate of our climate to some, may perhaps be formed, by noting the plants which grow here, subject, however, to be killed by our severest colds. These are the fig, pomegranate, artichoke, and European walnut. In mild winters, lettuce and endive require no shelter; but, generally, they need a slight covering. I do not know that the want of long moss, reed, myrtle, swamp laurel, holly, and cypress, in the upper country proceeds from a greater degree of cold, nor that they were ever killed with any degree of cold, nor that they were ever killed with any degree of cold in the lower country. The aloe lived in Williamsburg, in the open air, through the severe winter of 1779, 1780.

A change in our climate, however, is taking place very sensibly. Both heats and colds are become much more moderate within the memory even of the middle-aged. Snows are less frequent and less deep. They do not often lie, below the mountains, more than one, two, or three days, and very rarely a week. They are remembered to have been formerly frequent, deep, and of long continuance. The elderly inform me, the earth used to be covered with snow about three months in every year. The rivers, which then seldom failed to freeze over in the course of the winter, scarcely ever do so now. This change has produced an unfortunate fluctuation between heat and cold, in the spring of the year, which is very fatal to fruits. From the year 1741 to 1769, an interval of twenty-eight years, there was no instance of fruit killed by the frost in the neighborhood of Monticello. An intense cold, produced by constant snows, kept the buds locked up till the sun could obtain, in the spring of the year, so fixed an ascendency as to dissolve those snows, and protect the buds, during their development, from every danger of returning cold. The accumulated snows of the winter remaining to be dissolved all together in the spring, produced those overflowings of our rivers, so frequent then, and so rare now.

Having had occasion to mention the particular situation of Monticello for other purposes, I will just take notice that its elevation affords an opportunity of seeing a phenomenon which is rare at land, though frequent at sea. The seamen call it _looming_. Philosophy is as yet in the rear of the seamen, for so far from having accounted for it, she has not given it a name. Its principal effect is to make distant objects appear larger, in opposition to the general law of vision, by which they are diminished. I knew an instance, at Yorktown, from whence the water prospect eastwardly is without termination, wherein a canoe with three men, at a great distance was taken for a ship with its three masts. I am little acquainted with the phenomenon as it shows itself at sea; but at Monticello it is familiar. There is a solitary mountain about forty miles off in the South, whose natural shape, as presented to view there, is a regular cone; but by the effect of looming, it sometimes subsides almost totally in the horizon; sometimes it rises more acute and more elevated; sometimes it is hemispherical; and sometimes its sides are perpendicular, its top flat, and as broad as its base. In short, it assumes at times the most whimsical shapes, and all these perhaps successively in the same morning. The blue ridge of mountains comes into view, in the north-east, at about one hundred miles distance, and approaching in a direct line, passes by within twenty miles, and goes off to the south-west. This phenomenon begins to show itself on these mountains, at about fifty miles distance, and continues beyond that as far as they are seen. I remark no particular state, either in the weight, moisture, or heat of the atmosphere, necessary to produce this. The only constant circumstances are its appearance in the morning only, and on objects at least forty or fifty miles distant. In this latter circumstance, if not in both, it differs from the looming on the water. Refraction will not account for the metamorphosis. That only changes the proportions of length and breadth, base and altitude, preserving the general outlines. Thus it may make a circle appear elliptical, raise or depress a cone, but by none of its laws, as yet developed, will it make a circle appear a square, or a cone a sphere.

FOOTNOTE:

[45] At Paris, in 1753, the mercury in Reaumur's thermometer
was at 30½ above zero, and in 1776, it was at 16 below
zero. The extremities of heat and cold therefore at Paris,
are greater than at Williamsburg, which is in the hottest
part of Virginia.

QUERY VIII.

_The number of its inhabitants?_

The following table shows the number of persons imported for the establishment of our colony in its infant state, and the census of inhabitants at different periods, extracted from our historians and public records, as particularly as I have had opportunities and leisure to examine them. Successive lines in the same year show successive periods of time in that year. I have stated the census in two different columns, the whole inhabitants having been sometimes numbered, and sometimes the _tythes_ only. This term, with us, includes the free males above sixteen years of age, and slaves above that age of both sexes. A further examination of our records would render this history of our population much more satisfactory and perfect, by furnishing a greater number of intermediate terms. These, however, which are here stated will enable us to calculate, with a considerable degree of precision, the rate at which we have increased. During the infancy of the colony, while numbers were small, wars, importations, and other accidental circumstances render the progression fluctuating and irregular. By the year 1654, however, it becomes tolerably uniform, importations having in a great measure ceased from the dissolution of the company, and the inhabitants become too numerous to be sensibly affected by Indian wars. Beginning at that period, therefore, we find that from thence to the year 1772, our tythes had increased from 7,209 to 153,000. The whole term being of one hundred and eighteen years, yields a duplication once in every twenty-seven and a quarter years. The intermediate enumerations taken in 1700, 1748, and 1759, furnish proofs of the uniformity of this progression. Should this rate of increase continue, we shall have between six and seven millions of inhabitants within ninety-five years. If we suppose our country to be bounded, at some future day, by the meridian of the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, (within which it has been before conjectured, are 64,461 square miles) there will then be one hundred inhabitants for every square mile, which is nearly the state of population in the British Islands.

--------+--------------------+------------------------+-----------
Years. | Settlers Imported. | Census of Inhabitants. | Census of
| | | Tythes.
--------|--------------------+------------------------+-----------
1607 | 100 | ... | ...
| ... | 40 | ...
| 120 | ... | ...
1608 | ... | 130 | ...
| 70 | ... | ...
1609 | ... | 490 | ...
| 16 | ... | ...
| ... | 60 | ...
1610 | 150 | ... | ...
| ... | 200 | ...
1611 | 3 ship loads. | ... | ...
| 300 | ... | ...
1612 | 80 | ... | ...
1617 | ... | 400 | ...
1618 | 200 | ... | ...
| 40 | ... | ...
| ... | 600 | ...
1619 | 1,216 | ... | ...
1621 | 1,300 | ... | ...
1622 | ... | 3,800 | ...
| ... | 2,500 | ...
1628 | ... | 3,000 | ...
1632 | ... | ... | 2,000
1644 | ... | ... | 4,822
1645 | ... | ... | 5,000
1652 | ... | ... | 7,000
1654 | ... | ... | 7,209
1700 | ... | ... | 22,000
1748 | ... | ... | 82,100
1759 | ... | ... | 105,000
1772 | ... | ... | 153,000
1782 | ... | 567,614 |
--------+--------------------+------------------------+-----------

Here I will beg leave to propose a doubt. The present desire of America is to produce rapid population by as great importations of foreigners as possible. But is this founded in good policy? The advantage proposed is the multiplication of numbers. Now let us suppose (for example only) that, in this state, we could double our numbers in one year by the importation of foreigners; and this is a greater accession than the most sanguine advocate for emigration has a right to expect. Then I say, beginning with a double stock, we shall attain any given degree of population only twenty-seven years, and three months sooner than if we proceed on our single stock. If we propose four millions and a half as a competent population for this State, we should be fifty-four and a half years attaining it, could we at once double our numbers; and eighty-one and three quarter years, if we rely on natural propagation, as may be seen by the following tablet:

Proceeding on Proceeding on
our present stock. a double stock.

1781 567,614 1,135,228
1808¼ 1,135,228 2,270,456
1835½ 2,270,456 4,540,912
1862¾ 4,540,912

In the first column are stated periods of twenty-seven and a quarter years; in the second are our numbers at each period, as they will be if we proceed on our actual stock; and in the third are what they would be, at the same periods, were we to set out from the double of our present stock. I have taken the term of four million and a half of inhabitants for example's sake only. Yet I am persuaded it is a greater number than the country spoken of, considering how much inarable land it contains, can clothe and feed without a material change in the quality of their diet. But are there no inconveniences to be thrown into the scale against the advantage expected from a multiplication of numbers by the importation of foreigners? It is for the happiness of those united in society to harmonize as much as possible in matters which they must of necessity transact together. Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent. Every species of government has its specific principles. Ours perhaps are more peculiar than those of any other in the universe. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution, with others derived from natural right and natural reason. To these nothing can be more opposed than the maxims of absolute monarchies. Yet from such we are to expect the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty. These principles, with their language, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its directions, and render it a heterogenous, incoherent, distracted mass. I may appeal to experience, during the present contest, for a verification of these conjectures. But, if they be not certain in event, are they not possible, are they not probable? Is it not safer to wait with patience twenty-seven years and three months longer, for the attainment of any degree of population desired or expected? May not our government be more homogeneous, more peaceable, more durable? Suppose twenty millions of republican Americans thrown all of a sudden into France, what would be the condition of that kingdom? If it would be more turbulent, less happy, less strong, we may believe that the addition of half a million of foreigners to our present numbers would produce a similar effect here. If they come of themselves they are entitled to all the rights of citizenship; but I doubt the expediency of inviting them by extraordinary encouragements. I mean not that these doubts should be extended to the importation of useful artificers. The policy of that measure depends on very different considerations. Spare no expense in obtaining them. They will after a while go to the plough and the hoe; but, in the mean time, they will teach us something we do not know. It is not so in agriculture. The indifferent state of that among us does not proceed from a want of knowledge merely; it is from our having such quantities of land to waste as we please. In Europe the object is to make the most of their land, labor being abundant; here it is to make the most of our labor, land being abundant.

It will be proper to explain how the numbers for the year 1782 have been obtained; as it was not from a perfect census of the inhabitants. It will at the same time develope the proportion between the free inhabitants and slaves. The following return of taxable articles for that year was given in.

53,289 free males above twenty-one years of age.
211,698 slaves of all ages and sexes.
23,766 not distinguished in the returns, but said to be tytheable
slaves.
195,439 horses.
609,734 cattle.
5,126 wheels of riding-carriages.
191 taverns.

There were no returns from the eight counties of Lincoln, Jefferson, Fayette, Monongahela, Yohogania, Ohio, Northampton, and York. To find the number of slaves which should have been returned instead of the 23,766 tytheables, we must mention that some observations on a former census had given reason to believe that the numbers above and below sixteen years of age were equal. The double of this number, therefore, to wit, 47,532 must be added to 211,698, which will give us 259,230 slaves of all ages and sexes. To find the number of free inhabitants we must repeat the observation that those above and below sixteen are nearly equal. But as the number 53,289 omits the males below sixteen and twenty-one we must supply them from conjecture. On a former experiment it had appeared that about one-third of our militia, that is, of the males between sixteen and fifty, were unmarried. Knowing how early marriage takes place here, we shall not be far wrong in supposing that the unmarried part of our militia are those between sixteen and twenty-one. If there be young men who do not marry till after twenty-one, there are many who marry before that age. But as men above fifty were not included in the militia, we will suppose the unmarried, or those between sixteen and twenty-one, to be one-fourth of the whole number above sixteen, then we have the following calculation:

53,289 free males above twenty-one years of age.
17,763 free males between sixteen and twenty-one.
17,052 free males under sixteen.
142,104 free males of all ages.
-------
284,208 free inhabitants of all ages.
259,230 slaves of all ages.
-------
543,438 inhabitants, exclusive of the eight counties from
which were no returns. In these eight counties in the years
1779 and 1780, were 3,161 militia. Say then,
3,161 free males above the age of sixteen.
3,161 free males under sixteen.
6,322 free females.
-----
12,644 free inhabitants in these eight counties. To find the
number of slaves, say, as 284,208 to 259,230, so is 12,644
to 11,532. Adding the third of these numbers to the first,
and the fourth to the second, we have,
296,852 free inhabitants.
270,762 slaves.
-------
567,614 inhabitants of every age, sex and condition.

But 296,852, the number of free inhabitants, are to 270,762, the number of slaves, nearly as 11 to 10. Under the mild treatment our slaves experience, and their wholesome, though coarse food, this blot in our country increases as fast, or faster than the whites. During the regal government we had at one time obtained a law which imposed such a duty on the importation of slaves as amounted nearly to a prohibition, when one inconsiderate assembly, placed under a peculiarity of circumstance, repealed the law. This repeal met a joyful sanction from the then reigning sovereign, and no devices, no expedients, which could ever be attempted by subsequent assemblies, and they seldom met without attempting them, could succeed in getting the royal assent to a renewal of the duty. In the very first session held under the republican government, the assembly passed a law for the perpetual prohibition of the importation of slaves. This will in some measure stop the increase of this great political and moral evil, while the minds of our citizens may be ripening for a complete emancipation of human nature.

QUERY IX.

_The number and condition of the Militia and Regular Troops, and their Pay?_

The following is a state of the militia, taken from returns of 1780 and 1781, except in those counties marked with an asterisk, the returns from which are somewhat older.

Every able-bodied freeman, between the ages of sixteen and fifty, is enrolled in the militia. Those of every county are formed into companies, and these again into one or more battalions, according to the numbers in the county. They are commanded by colonels, and other subordinate officers, as in the regular service. In every county is a county-lieutenant, who commands the whole militia of his county, but ranks only as a colonel in the field. We have no general officers always existing. These are appointed occasionally, when an invasion or insurrection happens, and their commission determines with the occasion. The governor is head of the military, as well as civil power. The law requires every militia-man to provide himself with the arms usual in the regular service. But this injunction was always indifferently complied with, and the arms they had, have been so frequently called for to arm the regulars, that in the lower parts of the country they are entirely disarmed. In the middle country a fourth or fifth part of them may have such firelocks as they had provided to destroy the noxious animals which infest their farms; and on the western side of the Blue ridge they are generally armed with rifles. The pay of our militia, as well as of our regulars, is that of the continental regulars. The condition of our regulars, of whom we have none but continentals, and part of a battalion of state troops, is so constantly on the change, that a state of it at this day would not be its state a month hence. It is much the same with the condition of the other continental troops, which is well enough known.

+--------------+--------------+---------+
| Situation. | Counties. | Militia.|
+--------------+--------------+---------+
|Westward of {|Lincoln | 600 |
|the {|Jefferson | 300 |
|Alleghany {|Fayette | 156 |
|4,458. {|Ohio | .. |
| {|Monongalia | *1,000 |
| {|Washington | *829 |
| {|Montgomery | 1,071 |
| {|Greenbriar | 502 |
| | | |
|Between the {|Hampshire | 930 |
|Alleghany {|Berkeley | *1,100 |
| and {|Frederick | 1,143 |
|Blue Ridge. {|Shenando | *925 |
|7,673. {|Rockingham | 875 |
| {|Augusta | 1,375 |
| {|Rockbridge | *625 |
| {|Boutetourt | *700 |
| | | |
|Between the {|Loudoun | 1,746 |
|Blue Ridge {|Faquier | 1,078 |
|and Tide {|Culpepper | 1,513 |
|Waters. {|Spotsylvania | 480 |
|18,828. {|Orange | *600 |
| {|Louisa | 603 |
| {|Goochland | *550 |
| {|Fluvanna | *296 |
| {|Albemarle | 873 |
| {|Amherst | 896 |
| {|Buckingham | *625 |
| {|Bedford | 1,300 |
| {|Henry | 1,004 |
| {|Pittsylvania | *725 |
| {|Halifax | *1,139 |
| {|Charlotte | 612 |
| {|Prince Edward | 589 |
| {|Cumberland | 408 |
| {|Powhatan | 330 |
| {|Amelia | *1,125 |
| {|Lunenburg | 677 |
| {|Mecklenburg | 1,100 |
| {|Brunswick | 559 |
+--------------+--------------+---------+
| On the Tide Waters, and in that |
| Parallel. 19,012. |
+--------------+--------------+---------+
| Situation. | Counties. | Militia.|
+--------------+--------------+---------+
|Between {|Greensville | 500 |
|James River {|Dinwiddie | *750 |
|and {|Chesterfield | 665 |
|Carolina. {|Prince George | 328 |
|6,959. {|Surrey | 380 |
| {|Sussex | *700 |
| {|Southampton | 874 |
| {|Isle of White | *600 |
| {|Nansemond | *644 |
| {|Norfolk | *880 |
| {|Prince Anne | *594 |
| | | |
|Between {|Henrico | 619 |
|James & {|Hanover | 706 |
|York {|New Kent | *418 |
|rivers. {|Charles City | 286 |
|3,009. {|James City | 235 |
| {|Williamsburgh | 129 |
| {|York | *244 |
| {|Warwick | *100 |
| {|Elizabeth City| 182 |
| | | |
|Bet. York & {|Caroline | 805 |
|Rappahannock.{|King William | 436 |
|3,269. {|King and Queen| 500 |
| {|Essex | 468 |
| {|Middlesex | *210 |
| {|Gloucester | 850 |
| | | |
|Betw'n {|Fairfax | 652 |
|Rappahannock {|Prince William| 614 |
|and {|Stafford | *500 |
|Powtomac. {|King George | 483 |
|4,137. {|Richmond | 412 |
| {|Westmoreland | 544 |
| {|Northumberland| 630 |
| {|Lancaster | 332 |
| | | |
|East'n Shore.{|Accomac | *1,208 |
|1,638. {|Northampton | *430 |
| +---------+
| Whole Militia of the State | 49,971 |
+-----------------------------+---------+

QUERY X.

_The Marine?_

Before the present invasion of this State by the British, under the command of General Phillips, we had three vessels of sixteen guns, one of fourteen, five small gallies, and two or three armed boats. They were generally so badly manned as seldom to be in a condition for service. Since the perfect possession of our rivers assumed by the enemy, I believe we are left with a single armed boat only.

QUERY XI.

_A description of the Indians established in that State?_

When the first effectual settlement of our colony was made, which was in 1607, the country from the sea-coast to the mountains, and from the Potomac to the most southern waters of James' river, was occupied by upwards of forty different tribes of Indians. Of these the _Powhatans_, the _Mannahoacs_, and _Monacans_, were the most powerful. Those between the seacoast and falls of the rivers, were in amity with one another, and attached to the _Powhatans_ as their link of union. Those between the falls of the rivers and the mountains, were divided into two confederacies; the tribes inhabiting the head waters of Potomac and Rappahannock, being attached to the _Mannahoacs_; and those on the upper parts of James' river to the _Monacans_. But the _Monacans_ and their friends were in amity with the _Mannahoacs_ and their friends, and waged joint and perpetual war against the _Powhatans_. We are told that the _Powhatans_, _Mannahoacs_, and _Monacans_, spoke languages so radically different, that interpreters were necessary when they transacted business. Hence we may conjecture, that this was not the case between all the tribes, and, probably, that each spoke the language of the nation to which it was attached; which we know to have been the case in many particular instances. Very possibly there may have been anciently three different stocks, each of which multiplying in a long course of time, had separated into so many little societies. This practice results from the circumstance of their having never submitted themselves to any laws, any coercive power, any shadow of government. Their only controls are their manners, and that moral sense of right and wrong, which, like the sense of tasting and feeling in every man, makes a part of his nature. An offence against these is punished by contempt, by exclusion from society, or, where the case is serious, as that of murder, by the individuals whom it concerns. Imperfect as this species of coercion may seem, crimes are very rare among them; insomuch that were it made a question, whether no law, as among the savage Americans, or too much law, as among the civilized Europeans, submits man to the greatest evil, one who has seen both conditions of existence would pronounce it to be the last; and that the sheep are happier of themselves, than under care of the wolves. It will be said, that great societies cannot exist without government. The savages, therefore, break them into small ones.

The territories of the _Powhatan_ confederacy, south of the Potomac, comprehended about eight thousand square miles, thirty tribes, and two thousand four hundred warriors. Captain Smith tells us, that within sixty miles of Jamestown were five thousand people, of whom one thousand five hundred were warriors. From this we find the proportion of their warriors to their whole inhabitants, was as three to ten. The _Powhatan_ confederacy, then, would consist of about eight thousand inhabitants, which was one for every square mile; being about the twentieth part of our present population in the same territory, and the hundredth of that of the British islands.

Besides these were the _Nottoways_, living on Nottoway river, the _Meherrins_ and _Tuteloes_ on Meherrin river, who were connected with the Indians of Carolina, probably with the Chowanocs.

NORTH.
+-------------+----------------------------------------------+
| | MANNAHOACS. |
+-------------+-------------+--------------+---------+-------+
| | Tribes. |Country. |Cf. Towns|Warr's.|
| | | | +-------+
| | | | | 1669. |
| +-------------+--------------+---------+-------+
|Between {|Whonkenties. |Fauquier | | |
|Patowinac {|Tegninaties. |Culpepper. | | |
|and {|Ontponies. |Orange. | | |
|Rappahannoc.{|Tauxitanians.|Fauquier. | | |
| {|Hassinungaes.|Culpepper. | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
WEST.| {| | | | |EAST
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
|Bet. {|Stegarakies. |Orange. | | |
|Rappahannoc {|Shackakonies.|Spotsylvania. | | |
|& York. {|Manahoacs. |Stafford. | | |
| {| |Spotsylvania. | | |
+-------------+-------------+--------------+---------+-------+
|Between | |
| York | MONACANS. |
| and +-------------+--------------+---------+-------+
|James. {|Monacans. |James river, |Fork of | |
| {| | above the | James | |
| {| | falls. | river. | 30 |
| {| | | | |
| {|Monasiccapanoes.|Louisa. | | |
| {| |Fluvanna. | | |
| | | | | |
|Between {|Monahassanoes. |Bedford. | | |
|James & {| |Buckingham.| | |
|Carolina. {|Massinacacs. |Cumberland.| | |
| {|Mohemenchoes. |Powhatan. | | |
|Eastern | | | | |
|shore. | | | | |
| | | | | |
+-------------+----------------+-----------+---------+-------+
SOUTH.