ample of the power of climate, tuation, and because it is covered says he, more immediately subject to our own view, may be shewn in the inhabitants of these United States. Sprung within a few years from the British, the Irish, and the German nations, who are the fairest people in Europe, they are now spread over this continent, from the thirty-first to the fortyfifth degree of northern latitude. And notwithstanding the temperature of the climate, notwithstanding the shortness of the period since their first establishment in America, notwithstanding the continual mixture of Europeans with those born in the country, notwithstanding previous ideas of beauty that prompted them to guard against the influence of the climate, and notwithstanding the state of high civilization in which they took possession of their new habitations, they have already suffered a visible change. A certain countenance of paleness and of softness strikes a traveller from Britain, the moment he arrives upon our shore. A degree of sallowness is visible to him, which, through familiarity, or the want of a general standard of comparison, hardly attracts our observation This effect is more obvious in the middle, and still more in the southern, than in the northern states. It is more observable in the low Jands near the ocean, than as you approach the Apalachian mountains; and more in the lower and Jabouring classes of people, than in families of easy fortune, who possess the means and the inclinafion to protect their complexion. The inhabitants of New Jersey beJow the falls of the river, are somewhat darker in their colour than the people of Pennsylvania; both because the land is lower in its si with a greater quantity of stagnant water. A more southern latitude augments the colour along the shores of Maryland and Virginia. At length the low lands of the Carolinas and of Georgia degenerate to a complexion that is but a few shades lighter than that of the Iroquois." With respect to the native Indians, Dr. Smith acknowledges that there is a greater uniformity in their countenance, than is to be found in any other region of the globe of equal extent; yet, says he, there is a sensible gradation of colour till you arrive at the darkest hue of this continent in the nations on the west of Brasil. Here the continent being wider and consequently hotter than in any other part between the tropics, it is more deeply coloured: and the Toupinaniboes and Toupayas and other tribes of that region bear a near resemblance in their complexion to the inhabitants of the Oriental zone. No people in America indeed are to be found so black as the Africans, but in travelling from the great lakes to Florida or Lousiana, through the Indian nations, there is a visible progression in the darkness of their complexion, and at the councils of confederate nations, or at treaties for termina. ting an extensive war, you often see Sachems and warriors of very different hues. On the whole, we certainly think respectably of Mr. Heriot's work: a considerable portion of the matter it contains is collected from extraneous sources, some of them very accessible and well known; still however a mass of informa tion is presented to the reader, which will hardly fail to interest and amuse him. Art. IV. The Stranger in America; containing Observations made during a long Re sidence in that Country, on the Genius, Manners, and Customs of the People of the United States; with biographical Particulars of public Characters, Hints and Facts relative to the Arts, Sciences, Commerce, Agriculture, Manufactures, Emigration, and the Slave Trade. By CHARLES WILLIAM JANSON, Esq. late of the State of Rhode Island, Counsellor at Law. 4to. pp. 500. with Plates. THE necessity of foresight in the conduct of human life is so universally acknowledged as to have given birth to the maxim, "look before you leap." He who takes the leap without calculating his own strength to cover it, and regardless of the danger, has no right to grumble at any disaster which may result from his rash In early life a desire of visiting foreign countries inflamed the bosom of Mr. Janson; he proceeded to France, when the description given of America by some French officers who had served in the revolutionary war, induced him to cross the Atlantic. Ignorant, as it should seem of the character and habits of the people with whom he intended to pass a considerable portion of his life, the flattering and delusive picture which his imagination had formed of Arcadian simplicity, unsullied honesty, unviolated truth, soon faded away and gave place to the grave realities of life: hope was succeeded by disappointment, and the gaudy colours of the one gave by contrast a darker hue to the other. Every page of this volume breathes dissatisfaction, even to disgust; the Americans are every thing that is unamiable, every thing that is uncivil, every thing that is insincere. Mr. Janson was thirteen years in America; his speculations in land and commerce failed, and he was detained in the hated country thus long by the miserable expectation of recovering in some future speculations the losses he had sustained in his past. The writings of such splenetic travellers as this, however gloomy, ANN. REV. VOL. VI. are not entirely without their advantages. Although so far from agreeing with those political phi losophers who consider emigration as in itself an evil, that we are rather disposed to encourage and regulate, than to check the flow; still we hold it in the last degree unjustifiable to encourage it by any false or delusive description of the country towards which it tends. With this feeling, and on this principle, we should certainly recommend to the perusal of these repelling pages all those who, from whatever cause, are projecting an emigration to America. Here is no flattery; this is a counsellor who feelingly informs his countrymen what they are to expect on the shores of the new world. It may be suspected, however, in mitigation of his censures, that Mr. Janson was not the most conciliating in his own conduct: on board the ship which took him out he was nick-named the grumbler; and by his own ac count he was regarded as "proud and haughty by the Americans, in spite of his endeavours to adapt his behaviour to their satisfaction;" nor could he during the long time that he resided among them, form a true friendship with any individual among them. Depend upon it the whole fault did not rest with the Americans. "Their rooted aversion against the inhabitants of Britain" was to Mr. Janson, as it would be to any patriot Englishman, a source of perpetual uneasiness, and doubtless is one principal reason why, in return,) his tender charities are so sparingly. bestowed upon them. It happen D ed that the day after Mr. J.'s arri- he imagines that the remembrance of such foul and barbarous deeds will die away in the short period of a single generation. But it is time to recur to the work itself. val at Boston from Europe, was the anniversary of the declaration of American independence: it is customary on that day for orations to be delivered throughout the different States of the republic, in The usefulness of a book of this commemoration of an event so sort, and indeed of almost any glorious to their arms. Mr. Janson other sort, depends in no slight followed the throng which, eager- degree upon a judicious arrangely surrounded the pulpit, but on ment of the materials; the memohearing the orator animadvert with ry requires every assistance, which severity on the conduct of the a natural association of subjects can English during the war, his bile was give it for the recollection of facts; excited. "I could not see the and it will moreover be conceded policy of this proceeding; the that the mind receives a deeper very Indian on making peace impression, when the relation of with his enemy buries the hatchet, those facts is accompanied with which denotes an oblivion of all such valuable inferences and ob'animosities; yet the descendants servations as they are calculated to of Britain to this day continue to suggest. What merit is due to the impress on the mind of the rising work before us on either of these generation the most rancorous grounds will presently be seen. Thatred against the country from which they sprung." What policy there might or might not have been in such an oration it is not for us to determine; but Mr. Janson does not seem sufficiently to have reflected that the declaration of American independence is a proud and momentous æra in American history, and that the object of this commemoration is to keep alive the spirit which led to it, and to record the struggle which The prominent events of the war are too recent and are too closely associated with, the subject, to be overlooked in an oration which professedly treats of it; and little does Mr. Janson know of human nature if he supposes that the letting loose of those horrible hell-hounds of savage war," as Lord Chatham called the cannibal Indians whom we employ ed with their murderous tomahawks and scalping knives against our brethren and countrymen of the same language, laws, liberties, and religion with ourselves-little does he know of human nature, if In his preface, Mr. Janson wastes an unnecessary sentence to assure us that in collecting the notes which form the substance of this volume, he had originally no intention of committing them to the press. "He disclaims the vanity of aspiring to a place in the class of authors; had this been his ambition, he might have gratified it several years ago with equal facility." No such suspicion we ven ture to pronounce will even come across the reader's mind. Of all the works which have passed under our notice in the course of the year, this is one of the most random and irregular; the materials are, jumbled together in the strangest imaginable manner. No glimpse is to be caught of a plan, no attempt is made at any thing like arrangement. All is confusion : one chapter gives a statistical survey of the United States, and the next goes back to the history, of America and the search for gold in the province of Maine by some English adventurers; the following takes us to Connecticut in three short pages that State is dismissed pro tempore, and in the succeeding chapter we are amused-really much amused with the interesting adventures of Generals Whalley and Goffe, two of the judges who condemned Charles I. and who fled for refuge to America. The next chapter is meteorological, and that which succeeds it (extracted from a work of Mr. Hazen, who was a land surveyor seventy years ago), describes the fecundity of fish in New England, and the multiplication of wild pigeons in North Carolina! The first circumstance which excited the attention of our traveller when he landed at Boston, was the inquisitiveness of the people, and he says that if the Americans have any national trait of character, it is this," intrusive (curiosity." Was it very surprising that on the arrival of a ship at Boston half a score voices should enquire what news it brought from Europe? Mr. Janson, however, asserts that it is not to acquire useful information that these people 156 pester strangers," and his reason for thinking so, is that they act in the same manner towards each other. So because they are inquisitive towards each other, it is inferred that their enquiries from strangers result from sheer impertinence, and have not for their object, the obtaining of any useful information. We must leave our readers to trace the logic of this inference; we cannot assist them. Large quantities of a coarse rum are distilled at Bostor from damaged molasses; in this employment there are nearly forty large distilleries engaged, whilst throughout the whole extent of New England, comprehending the four States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, together with the Pro vince of Maine, there are not more than two or three ill-supported breweries of malt liquor. The baleful effects of this preference to ardent spirits are felt in every part of the Union; for drinking, Mr. Janson very gravely assures us,) is apt to produce quarrels, and quarrels, he continues with equal gravity, are very apt to produce! fighting, and in fighting we all know that many a hard blow is given and taken on both sides. Finding the heat at Boston very oppressive, in about a week after his arrival Mr. J. left it, and proceeded to New London in Connecticut. Volney in his very amusing and valuable work on the climate and soil of the United States, speaking of the temperature, says, that in the same day you have spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the frosts of Norway and the suns of Africa. These African suns and the innumerable insects animated by their rays seem to have annoyed our "Stranger in America" as much as any thing. In the summer of 1795, the newspapers were filled with accounts of people being killed with a coup de soleil. Volney states' the evil, but to Mr. Janson, alone, is due the merit of suggesting the remedy-he recommends every "stranger" to wear a white hat!! every f Our author is singularly happy now and then in his descriptions: speaking of the Nipegon and Michipicooton, two large rivers which empty themselves into Lake Superior, he says that not far from the former is a small river remarkable for a perpendicular fall of upwards of six hundred feet from the top of a mountain. Gentle reader what thinkest thou this magnificent object is compared to? "Surveyed at a distance," says Mr. Janson, it appears like a white ribband suspend ed in the air." A comical fellow once compared a flock of distant sheep grazing on a verdant pasture to white maggots crawling on a green cloth. This is no bad simile, but must yield to the other. Α whole river falling six hundred perpendicular feet, compared to a strip of white four-penny ribband dangling in the air. Oh admirable! Foote himself, in his merriest mood would not have hit upon any thing half so ludicrous. After having, as our duty enjoined us, exposed some of the prominent defects of Mr. Janson's work, the more agreeable office remains to be performed of evincing to our readers that it is not destitute' of useful information and anecdote. "The United States, according to an American geography, are estimated to comprise upwards of a million square miles, or six hundred and forty million acres of land, exclusive of the lakes, and other large waters of that country. This estimate was made previous to the purchase of Louisiapa,* the extent of which has never been accurately defined. Already a region too extensive to be subject to one general go; vernment, the people of the northern and southern states differing as much in manners as in climate, they have, by this acquisition, added an extent of territory nearly equal in magnitude to the federal states. Since the peace of 1782, this country has been extending its limits on the frontiers by purchase, and treaties with the different tribes of Indians. The thirteen states are already swelled into sixteen, and the territories of Mississippi and Indiana, each sending a delegate to congress, will, doubtless, very soon be added to the number. The province of Maine, in the north, has also long looked forward to become an independent state; and when Louisiana is incorporated with the union, it is not improbable that we may find twenty-six united states of America for some short time recorded in history. The present population of this extensive country, justifies the assertion, that many centuries must elapse before the whole is under cultivation. In the year 1791, a census was taken by order of government; when the inhabitants were found to be in number 3,929,326 In 1801, by another census then taken, there were Making an increase in ten years of 5,305,638 1,376,312 According to this average, exclusive of the great increase of population by emigrations from Europe since the year 1801, there must be, exclusive of Louisiana, 6,337,072 souls, under the federal govern ment. If the whole of this country were under improvement, it would require, allowing forty acres of land to each, sixteen millions of families; and, estimating such families at five persons, it would support eighty millions of souls. In this way it has been calculated in America, that to people the whole territories belonging to the United States, including Louisiana and the Floridas, it would require three hundred and twenty millions. “It likewise ap *The cession of Louisiana by Spain to the ruler of France, formed one of the articles of the treaty of Saint Ildefonso,-a treaty which has never yet been carried into full effect on the part of the latter. The purchase of that extensive country by the United States, is an event too recent and too well known to require any farther notice from me. Though the acquisition of the Floridas has not been officially announced by the American government, yet no doubt exists, that the sum of two millions of dollars, shipped for France about a year ago, on the demand of Buonaparte's diplomatic agent Turreau, was the price of those provinces. The conduct of Napoleon in this transaction, is well worth an observation. By means of a treaty which he never intended to execute, he obtained the sovereignty over those vast regions; but knowing that, from the naval superiority of England, he could derive no advantage from these distant possessions, he transferred them on the point of the sword to the Americans, whom he bullied into a purchase, in order to recruit his exhausted treasury. From the readiness with which they have complied with all his requisitions, I should not be surprised to hear that he had disposed of his imperial island of Hayti, as another good bargain, to these complaisant republicans. |