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Vol. VI
I Darien <£>asette
I EDITED JuVTi PUBLISHED
DY
MA'S. F. GRANDISON.
(ON THE BAY)
per annum, flay able in advance.
Hm TIIE (LONDON’) MONTHLY CRITIC
AL GAZETTE.
B mnmary view of America. By an
Bnglishvnan.—Bvo. pp. 503; 13s.—
Bade 11 and Blackwood.
H he traveller jiere under our review
■started forth irom the crowd, (who
Be lately been juggled into a belief
■ there is nothing good in America,)
Brder to see fair play, and to redeem
jßcharacter of the Americans from
■sinister imputations which igno
pe, no less than calomny,have occa-
Bed. He who never travels, sees the
■world only in iris own country; as he
B never reads, sees the world only
Bimself, like Montesquieu’s curate.
B, instead of the moon, could see no-
Bg in the telescope, but the village
Bple. The too great idea of the soil
Brhich we tread disappears when we
■compelled to consider, practical-
Bhe variety and totality of the globe.
B)n examining most of the books of
Be Is in America, by Englishmen,”
B our author, “it will be found, that
■impression which they are calcu-
Bd to ma'ke, is, on the whole, unfavo-
Be. Who, after reading the narra
■s of Ashe, Jansen, Fearon, Weld,
Bvitt, Howisson, Welby, and Faux,
■ would conclude, that the Ameri-
B are a rude, wild dirty, crafty, and
Bmindcd people? * * * * There
B unquestionably, some erroneous
Bmenis in one or two of them; but I
Brt as undeniable, that truth has, for
■most part, been supported, though
■dor has been laid aside. Now it is
Bous that, where this course is per-
Bj,ihe object of publishing books of
■cis is defeated; understanding, as I
Bhru an author pvofes>ing to inform
■country men of a foreign land, itsin-
Bt’C” r-.io institutions, ought, in jus-
I. to give the good, as well as the
I, traits that present themselves.—
B, when it is borne in mind, that the
Bellers above named appear to have
Bed through the country, without
Bombing acquainted with the most
Blligenl part of the community, or,
Beast, without that disposition to be
Based, which is so necessary in foreign
Bis, it may be inferred, that they
Be not qualified to do justice to the
Bple concerning whom they have
■tten.
■his Englishmans style is sometimes
Band at other times unpolished; but
Bis a correct thinker, which, in a sub-
Bt like this, is belter tnan a polished
Bei. He is obviously one of those
Bhors who reflect more than they
Be; we have too many who write
B e than they reflect. The following
Bulpatory passages, which relate to
Bpitality, civility, reception at inns,
B the application of words, we have
Bracted so as to follow the above pre-
B in their natural order:
■The usual reception, the traveller
B s at the inns, is that of cold civility
■ the landlord and the waiter, though
■ obsequious, are generally sufficient.-
Bttentive. Some things in country
■ccs a little discomposed me at first;
B, resolving to act on the adage—of
Bug at Rome as Rome does—l soon
B sense of uneasiness.”
■Again our English traveller affirms:
B‘l can truly say that, in by far the
Bater number of the inns I stopped at,
Bund comfort, civility, and attention,
■t then I endeavored to give as little
Buble as possible. Good temper may
jfl sometimes tequsite; indeed, without
■no person should think, of leaving his
■five country.”
■“Besides the public towns, there are
■ nuny parts, what are called houses
■ private entertainment, being houses
■ere the traveller who has no objec
■n to take bis meals with the family,
B conform in every respect to their
Bits,may find himself comfortable.—
B a pedestrian, like myself, they are
By acceptable. One of the best hou
■stliat 1 stopped at in the whole cotin-
B “as of this description. It was in
B c li eart of Virginia, sud so remote
B m any town, that I little expected,
■ such a situation to find a house cle-
Btlv furnished. It being dark when
Buered, I was fearful 1 might find
B e difficulty in removing any suspi
■°ns which might arise from the visit
DARIEN IliSt? GAZETTE.
DARIEN) (GEORGIA,) equal anil €jCaCt 3flu£tke. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER. 23, 1824.
of a solitary, at such an hour. ’ But,
when I enquired if I could have a hights
lodging, no difficulties were started.—
On going to my bedchamber I found it
was one which, for neatness and com
fort, would have done credit to any Eu
ropean city: yet this was in the mountai
nous district of Virginia, and surround
ed by forests. But what pleased me
most was, to find a bookcase well stored
with choice authors.”
It appears, from an impartial travel
ler, that the Americans, so far from be
ing so coarse and vulgar in conversation
as hath been alleged, carry their refine
ment and delicacy, in the choice of
words, to a troublesome, and over-sen
sitive, extreme of nicety:
“Such is the refinement of language
in America, that an Englishman, ac
customed to genteel life, and taught to
use the most polished phrases, may use
expressions which in England would
be suffered in any society; but which,
in America, would subject him to the
imputation of vulgarity. 1 Feeling my
self unwilling to offend, I became very
careful in the selection of my words.—
But it sometimes happened that I in
advertently used such as ate consider
ed unwarrantable. * * * * But what
ever may be the defects of American
conversation, it would be unjust to de
ny it the praise of decorum. Great
care is taken to avoid hurting the fee
lings of any one. When a dissentient
opinion is expressed, it is done with
wildness. That bold and decisive op
position which has been supposed part
ofthe national character of the English
is rejected, as being too rude for civi
lization.”
With regard to the American ladies
the author says.
“ Though they have not the enthusi
asm of the Irish, nor the sprightliness
of the French, they are exceedingly to
be admired, as they possess, in a supe”
reminent degree, that softness which
throws so much grace over feminine
actions; and which, when united with
good sense, make the strongest impres
sion on the hemt. Another trait, and a
most interresting one, is the confidence
they repose in those with whom they
are familiar. They manifest no desire
to conceal, under the ga-b or affecta
tion, that warmth of heart, which wo
men, in every country but France, arc
said to possess.”
Our author next gives the following
corrective description of one portion,
at least, ofthe so much depreciated ci
ty and capital of Washington:
“The room in which the House of
Representatives assemble in the cap
ital of Washington, is one of the fin
est in the world. This may be, thought
a strong expression; but I believe all
who have entered it, will concur in its
justice. It is semicurcular, and the
speaker’s chair being placed in the
centre of the diametrical line, the mem
bers are ranged in semicircles round
him. The roof is supported by mar
ble pillars; crimson curtains, hanging
in festoons, between them. Over the
speaker’s chair is a gigantic French
figure, which is, I believe, intended to
be emblematic of America. T.ie
floor being carpeted, nothing seems
wanting, to the comfort and conven
ience of the members, or to the elegant
finish of the room. It has, however,
one most unfortunate defect: the voice
of the orator who in addressing the
house, is often lost in reverberation. —
No corrective has hitherto been found
for this defect. I have seen rooms lar
ger and more splendid than this; but I
never saw one which seemed more
completely to unite beauty and gran
deur with utillity.”
The chapter on negro slavery in
America is well worth the perusal of
every sincere lover of liberty; for it is
a truth which must be borne in mind,
however painful the admission, that,
while America has united with Eng
land in declaring the external slave
trade piracy, she retains her internal
slave trade in all its shocking and dis
gusting details.
While we agree with onr traveller
in deprecating the anomaly of negro
slavery in a republic, we feel our
selves bound in candor to add, that the
measure which he recommends to the
American statesman, is a task as diffi
cult and as momentous as ever fell to
the lot of any body of public men; a
task no less than that of making an en
tire change in a peculiar state of hu
man condition, which has obtained ob
duracy from habit, and corroboration
from lime; of melting down the human
mass and recasting it into a state of
improvement, and capacity to improve
whatever was most stationary in the
materials of that condition, most incoal
escible in its elements, and most ob
noxious to moral taste in its construc
tion. It is only by degrees that the ea
glet is enabled to gaze upon the sun.—
To couch the moral eye of a people is
an arduous, and may be a dangerous
undertaking. The negro must be pre
pared, by education, for the steady
management, and unintoxicated ap
preciation,of his disenthralled freedom.
Without this,the gift,like that of Swift’s
human immortals, would boa curse,
instead of an advantage; and a sourse
of public confusion, instead of public
benefit.
ST. PAUL’S, LONDON.
The va9tness of the Church, as seen
from the centre of the floor, is most
imposing; it is impossible not to be
struck with its extent, its length, its
width, and the unbroken loftiness ofthe
dome above, into which the eye ascends
and penetrates until respiration is thick
ened and the brain grows giddy, and
we seek relief in the contemplation of
objects nearer the surface of the earth
and immediately arouod us, the mon
uments of the illustrious dead. The
eyes cf most people are so little ac
customed to making an accurate ad
measurement of heights, that the lof
tiness of St. Paul’s can only be estima
ted justly from below. If we ascend
to the whispering gallery, a height far
above the habitations of the people of
London, the view downwards is over
powering, affecting various heads in
various ways; producing vertigo in
some, sickness in others, and an awful
feeling of overthrow itiveness in a
few, a sort of propensity to drop
through the passive air upon he hard
ma ble below, a thought full of mad
ness and horror: or when we ascend far
above this point, and even to more than
double its elevation, the fearful height
does not seem proportionably increas
ed; the feeling it inspired before, seem
ed scarcely to admit of aggravation.
The whispering gallery is indeed to
‘many a fea> ful peace. The surprising
altitude of dome and tower above, the
yawning and immense abyss below; the
stern marble spread out to clash the
mortal frame to instant dust, the nar
rowness of the circular gallery, the
overshadowing of the superincumbent
vault, the appalling loudness of every
common sound, and the loud wind heard
evers weeping round the dome itself,
produce an incredibly alarming effect
on some individuals.
The young, the aspiring, the new to
London can seldom be restrained from
ascending to the airy gallery above the
dome, and there, in describing a most
limited circle, the eyes takes in a thou
sand histories. London, with all its
vicissitudes, with all its generations,
with all its present and all the past a
bout it, is stretched beneath us, and al
most every house visible. Even from
that height the eye cannot, in all direc
tions, overleap the colossal city, and
what is seen of green fields and hills is
seen with the indistinctness of another
world. The wind storms forever
round the cupola, blowing the fair and
adventous about (“a chartered liber
tine!”) to the greatest advantage; whilst
the spectator feels almost disposed to
lose his confidence in the secure and
eternal pedestal on which he stands,
and breathlessly enjoys the sublimity
ofapparant danger without the reality.
It is when we begin to descend from
this immense elevation that we feel
the fatigue which our over excitement
has caused us to incur; and that a man
may be considered the favorite of for
tune who begins to retrace the never
ending steps when the organ is pealing
in the afternoon service; for, at such
a time, fits of melody will burst upon
him at unexpected turns, and the pier
cing voices of the full voiced choir be
low will penetrate the intricate reces
ses of the vast structure, and vibrations
of harmony will meet him suddenly in
unexpected angles and sinuosities of
the building. Siveet sounds will be
heard, now near, now distant, as if borne
to him by the soft and fitful breeze, and
every thing will conspire to shorten his
journey downwards.
NATURAL HISTORY.
African Lions.— The first number
ofthe South African Journal , publish
ed at the Cape of Good Hope, contains
some very interesting details respec
ting the lions of that country. The
writer says, that, beyond tho limits of
the colony, they are accounted pecu
liarly fierce and dangerous, and he
thinks Mr. Barrow’s representations,
that they are cowardly and treacher
ous, is a conclusion drawn from limi
ted experience or inaccurate informa
tion. “The prodigious strength of this
animal (he observes) does not appear
to have been overrated. It is certain
that he can drag, the heaviest ox with
ease,a considerable way;and a horse heif
er, hartebeest, or lesser pray, he finds
no difficult in throwing over his shoul
der and carry off to any distance he
may find convenient. I have myself
witnessed an instance of a *very young
lion conveying a horse about a mile
from the spot where he had killed it;
and a more extraordinary case has
been mentioned to me on good author
ity, where a lion, having carried off a
heifer of two years old, was followed
on the track for five hours, above 30
English miles, by a party on horse back
and, throughout the whole distance,
the carcass of the heifer was only once
or twice discovered to have touched
the ground. The Bechuano Chief
old Peyshow (now in Cape town) con
versing with me a few days ago, said,
that the lion very seldom attacks man
if unprovoked; but he. will frequently
approach within a few paces, and sur
vey him steadily; and sometimes he
will attempt to get behind him, as if he
could not stand his look, but was
yet desirous of springing upon him un
awares. If a person in such circum
stances attempts either to fight or fly,
he incurs the most imminent peril; but
if he has sufficient presence of mind
coolly to confront him, without appear
ance of either terror or aggression, the
animal will, in almpst every in
stance, after a little space, retire. The
overmastering effect of the human eye
upon the lion has been frequently men
tioned, though much doubted, by tra
vellers; but, from my own inquiries a
mong lion nunters, I am perfectly sa
tisfied of the fact: and ananeedeote re
lated to me a few days ago, by Major
Mc’lntosh, proves that this fascinating
effect is not restricted to the lion. An
officer in India, well known to my infor
mant, ha ving chanced to ramble into
a jungle, suddenly encountered a roy
al Tyger.’ The rencontre appeared
equally unexpected on both sides, and
both parties made a dead halt, ear
nestly gazing on each other. The
gentleman had no ‘fire arms, and was
aware that a sword would be no effec
tive defence in a struggle for life with
such an antagonist. But he had heard
that even the Bengal Tyger might be
sometimes checked by looking him
firmly in the face. He did so. In a
few minutes, the tiger, which appear
ed prepared to make his final spring,
grew disturbed, slunk aside, and at
tempted to creep round upon him be
hind. The officer turned constantly
upon the tiger, which still continued to
shrink from his glance; but, darting in
to the thicket, and again issuing forth
in a different quarter, it preserved for
above half an hour in this attempt to
catch him by surprise; till, at last, it
fairly yielded the contest, and left the
gentleman to pursue his pleasure walk.
The direction he now took, as may be
easily believed, was strait to the tents
at a double quick time.” after relating
several terrific stories of encounters
with lions, the writer concludes his ar
ticle with one not quite so fearful, rela
ted by Lucas Van Vuuen, to Vee Boor
his neighbor, at the Bavian’s river:
Lucas was riding across the open plains
about day-break, and observing a lion
at a disiance, he endeavored to avoid
him by making a circuit.
Lucas soon perceived that he was
not disposed to let him pass without
further parlance, and that he was rap
idly approaching to the encounter, and
being without his roer (rifle) and other
wise little inclined to any closer ac
quaintance, he turned off at right an
gles—laid the sambok freely to his
horse’s flank, and galloped for life.—
The horse was fagged, and bore a hea
vy man on his back; the lion was fresh
and furious with hunger, and came
down upon him like a thunderbolt!—
In a few seconds he overtook Lucas,
and springing up behind him, brought
horse and man in an instant to the
ground, Luckily the boor was unhurt
and the lion was too eager in worrying
the horse to pay any immediate atten
tion to the rider.
“Hardly knowing himself how he
escaped, he contrived to scramble out
of the fray, and made a clean pair of
heels of it till he reached the next
house. Lucas, who gave me the detail
of this adventure himself, made no ob„
servations on it as being any way re
markable,except in the circumstance of
the lions audacity in pursuing a “Chris
tian man” without provocation in open
day! But what chiefly vexed him in
the afjjair was the loss of the saddle.—
He returned next day with a party of
friends to take vengeance on his feline
foe; but both the lion and saddle had
disappeared,and nothing could be found
but the horse’s clean-picked bones.—
Lucas said, he could have excused the
schclm for killing the horse, as he had
allowed hitnscjf to get away, hut the fe
lonious abstraction of the saddle (for
which, as Lucas gravely observed, he
could have no possible use; raised his
spleen mightily, and called down a
shower of curses whenever he told the
story of this hairbreadth escape.”
REPUBLIC OF HAYTI.
Port au Prince, Oct. 6.
Circular*—John P. Boyer, Presi
dent of Hayti , to the Commandants
of departments.
The Envoys, who, upon the request
that was made to me, I sent to treat in
France of the recognition of the inde
penndence of Hayti, have returned.—
Their mission has not resulted in the
manner we had a right to expect it
would, because the French government
incredible as it may appear, still pre
tend to chimerical right of sovereignty
over this country. This pretension,
which it appeared to have renounced,
is forever inadmissible. It is anew
proof of what I have befoie declared,
that our only safety is in our own un
shaken resolutions, and how well found
ed were the apprehensions which in
duced the measures I have adopted.—
Under these circumstances, it becomes
you, more than ever, to refer to the di
rections of my proclamation of the
6th January last, and the private in
structions which have followed it.—
Press with activity ail the necessary
works; put in good order the artillery
and munitions of every kind. Let no
thing be neglected. Put in requisition
the workmen of the army, and even, if
it be necessary, private individuals, to
have in readiness the gun-carriages
which are yet unfinished. Do every
thing in such a manner that, in case of
invasion by the enemy, you may not be
retarded in any one point. Remember
your duties, your responsibility, and act
accordingly. The national honor de
mands (you will not lose sight of this)
that safety and quiet b? assured to those
strangers who, upon the public faith*
guarantied by the constitution, may be
residing in this country. Protect them
and their property, so that they may be
in the most perfect security. It will
be a sufficient reflection to be sensible
of the infamy which will be thrown up
on the nation, if, under any circumstan
ces, we shall act otherwise. Destroy
the implacable enemies who shall place
their sacrilegious feet upon our territo
ry, but Jet us never disgrace our cause
by a dishonorable actio i. In sending
deputies to anange the forms of a re
cognition of our independence. I yield
ed to the requests made to me by the
agents ol the government of the king
of France. It was necessary toper
form this act, to take from malevolence
every pretext for taxing me with ob
stinacy. It was necessary to do it for
my own peace of mind, and, in fact, to
fix the opinion of the nation upon this
important point. I believe, in this res
pect, that I performed my duty; but I
have the satisfaction of declaring that I
have not been deceived.
The Republic is free: it is forever
independent, since we are determined
to bury ourselves under its ruins rather
than submit to a stranger. In the mean
while, the enemies of Hayti rashly
count upon divisions among us. What
folly, and, at the same time, what du
plicity! Let us be eternally united.—
Faithful to our duties, we shall be, with
the assistance of the Almighty, forever
invincible. BOYER.
Horse-dung, clay, sand and pitch-tar
form a composition, which, when ap
plied to the trunks and stems of fruit
trees, after they are properly cleaned,
prevents that spontaneous exudation
called gumming, which is very injuri
ous to the growth of trees.
Mr. Knight is of opinion, founded on
actual experiment, that oa|s timber
would be much improved, if the tree,
after being barked in the spring, was
permitted to stand till the following
winter.— Snglish Paper,
JVo. 45.