lity of the bearer, and a sudden compliance with the purport of his errand. In this way decrees are enforced, the punishment due to offence remitted, or the severest sentence annexed to it carried into instant execution. They have one law against adultery, which has something curious in it. The fine imposed on the offender is, that he pay the injured husband an ox. This penalty, the head man of the particular tribe to which the adulterer belongs, is strictly bound by long custom to see punctually complied with, or one of his own cattle may be taken as a lawful indemnity. Should the latter happen, the chief then exacts, as an equivalent for what he loses by the offence, a stated period of servitude from the offender. In this country there is neither priest, physician, or lawyer; but there is a professor of another science, who commonly unites the duties of the three; this is the sokee, or conjuror, a person of high importance, and whose occult skill is ever regarded with the deepest and most implicit veneration. They have no modes of public worship, nor could any particular forms of religious persuasion be found to prevail amongst them. There is little doubt, however, of their paying adoration to evil spirits, from a singular belief which is entertained, that they have much more inconvenience to apprehend from the influence of the bad than the good. In common with most, if not with all rude tribes, polygamy is freely allowed, and a plurality of wives is the privilege of every hus band in the Mosquito nation; but perhaps it has seldom been indulged in equal extent in any country. Many men here claim from two to six wives; few can be found satisfied with one: their late king surpassed all his subjects in this respect; he claimed no less than twenty-two! His Mosquito majesty might very well have exclaimed with honest Launcelot"Alas! fifteen wives is nothing.". At the same time it may be observed, that this circumstance is attended with far less inconvenience than might possibly be found annexed to it in most other situations, the numerous claimants for the affection or favour of their lord never discovering the least jealousy or hatred towards each other. The females are taken for wives at a very tender age, frequently when they have scarcely attained their tenth year. At the hour of their birth, the contract for their destination in this respect is not uncommonly formed with the husband and their parents. And from what would seem so premature an engagement, that which usually discovers itself in this sex must be expected to happen, an early appearance of advanced years. It is likewise observed, a natural consequence of the above, that the duration of life between the sexes is found greatly disproportionate. A singular custom is scrupulously observed by the women of this nation. At the time of parturition, an habitation is prepared for them in the deepest recesses of the woods, to which, with a female assistant, they retire, and where they remain secluded from every eye for a stated period. Xx 3 This This past, a public lustration of themselves and offspring must take place previous to their being again admitted to the society of their relatives and friends. These Indians may in one respect be thought to resemble the improvisatori of some other countries. Their metrical effusions being entirely spontaneous, and usually thrown into a kind of measure, which, if it be rude and' uncultivated, possesses, nevertheless, something peculiarly soft and plaintive to recommend it. The subjects which excite their verse are chiefly of the latter descrip tion. In a political point of view, an alliance with the Mosquito Indians can be considered but of relative importance. They hold little pretension to the character of warlike, the last quality, however, that humanity might wish to contemplate them in; nor are there any advantages of a commercial nature resulting from such cornection. The implacable enmity they have ever borne towards one nation, our frequent foe, from what cause it may be unnecessary to inquire, is perhaps the best claim they can offer for the extension of our friendship. This nation cannot number at the utmost more than 1500 or 2000 men capable of using arms. Immediately contiguous to it are two other tribes, called the Payers and the Towkcas. These people are more numerous, and considered much more enterprising and brave, although they are tributary to the former, and have been to from time immemorial. The acknowledgment of this dependance is expressed by the annual payment of a certain number of cattle. But neither the Poyers or Towkcas possess any thing like the civilization of the Mosquito people. Hence, unquestionably, the cause and continuance of their vassalage. Account of Salt Works at Namptwich in the County of Chester. [From Messrs. Lysons' Magna Britannia.] Mr. Webb, in his Itinerary of Cheshire, printed in King's ValeRoyal, speaking of Nantwich, and the excellency of the cheese made in the neighbourhood of that town, says, notwithstanding all the trials that our ladies and gentlewomen make in their dairies in other parts of the county, and other counties of the kingdom; yet can they never fully match the perfect relish of the right Nantwich checse; nor can, I think, that cheese be equalled by any other made in Europe, for pleasantness of taste and wholesomeness of digestion, even in the daintiest stomachs of them that love it.' Fuller, in his Worthies, speaking of Cheshire, says, this county doth afford the best cheese for quantity and quality, and yet their cows are not (as in other shires) housed in the winter;* so that it may seem strange that the hardiest kine should make the The cows in Cheshire are now housed in the winter, although they'ase not in many other counties, and in some districts much celebrated for the excellency of their cheese, as the Vale of Gloucester, North-Wiltshire, and Berkshire. tenderest. tenderest cheese. Some essayed in vain to make the like in other places, though from thence they fetched both their kine and dairy-inaids it seems they should have fetched their ground too (wherein is surely some occult excellency in this kind), or else so good cheese will not be made. I hear not the like commendation of the butter in this county, and perchance these two commodities are like stars of a different horizon, so that the elevation of the one to eminency is the depression of the other.' Dr. Leigh, in his Natural History of Cheshire, and Dr. Campbell, in his Political Survey, attribate the peculiar flavour of the Cheshire cheese to the abundance of saline particles in the soil of this country; and the latter observes, that in the neighbourhood of Nantwich, where the brine springs most abound, the cheese is esteemed to be of the most superior quality; the opinion that prime cheese is produced exclusively from pastures under which salt springs are found, is now exploded. In Mr. Wedge's General View of the Agriculture of Cheshire, published in 1794, may be found a copious account of the process of cheese-making, as practised in this county. Mr. Holland, in his late Survey, calculates that the number of cows kept for the dairy in Cheshire is about 32,000; and that the quantity of cheese annually made from them is about 11,500 tons:† The greater part of the Cheshire cheese, particularly that of the south_part of the county, is sold to the London cheesemongers, through the medium of factors, who reside in the neighbourhood: some is sent by the Mersey to Liverpool; some inland, by the Staffordshire canal; and a considerable quantity by other canals, to the markets of Stockport and Manchester. It is certain, from the record of Domesday, that salt was one of the principal articles of commerce in this county, from a very early period; and that it produced a considerable revenue to the crown before the Norman conquest; the king having two-thirds, and the Earl of Chester one-third of the tolls; in which manner it continued to the time of Hugh Lupus. It appears that the Wiches, as they are called in the Survey, were very productive in the reign of Edward the Confessor. When Hugh Lupus was first created Earl of Chester, the salt-works belonging to the king and the earl, at Middlewich and Nantwich, having before produced a rent of 161. per ann. were wholly disused and unproductive; and those at Nantwich, whence the king and earl Edwin had derived an income of 201. per ann, The richest and best cheese is said to be produced from land of an inferior nature; but the greatest quantity from the richest land. Among the places and districts most celebrated for making the prime cheese, may be reckoned the neighbourhood of Nantwich, for a circuit of five miles; the parish of Over; the greater part of the banks of the river Wever; and several farms near Congleton and Middlewich, among which we have heard that of Croxton Hall particularly mentioned. + This calculation probably is over. rated; we are informed that the quantity annually sent out of Cheshire, from the port of Chester, and by various canals, is about 4000 tons only; about four-fifths of which is the produce of the county. X x 4 were were nearly as much neglected; there being then in use only one salt-work out of eight which had been formerly worked. At the time of the survey, the salt-works had somewhat recovered their value, those at Nantwich being let to farm by the crown at 101., those at Middlewich at 25s., and those at Northwich at 35s. The Survey gives the particulars of the duties paid for each waggon-load, horse-load, &c. which varied for that which was sold in the hundred or county, or carried out of either; the customs in the different Wiches varied also. The earl had a salt-pit at Nantwich, for the use of his own household, toll-free; but if he sold any salt, he was to account with the king for two-thirds of the tolls. The proprietors of private salt-works were also permitted to have salt for the use of their families toll-free; but paid toll for all which they sold. It is probable that the chief exportation of salt at this early period, was to Wales; the people of which country are said to have called Nantwich Hellath Wen, or the white salt-pit, from the whiteness of the salt there made. As no mention is made by Pliny of the salt of Britain, it is probable that there were no salt-works in this country so early as the time of the Romans, King Henry III. during his wars with the Welsh, caused all the salt-works in Che shire to be destroyed, and the pits to be stopped up, to prevent the enemy from procuring any supply of that valuable article. The art of making salt appears to have been but imperfectly understood in England for several centuries after the Conquest.— King Henry VI. invited John de Sheidam, a gentleman of Zealand, to come over to this country, with sixty persons in his company, to instruct his subjects in the improved method of making salt. Mr. Loundes, a Cheshire gentleman, received a reward from parliament about the beginning of the last century, for making public some supposed improvements in this art; soon afterwards, Di. Brownrig published a treatise on the art of making common salt, in which he suggested some improvements, which have been since adopted. Partly in consequence of those improvements, and partly from other causes, the manufacture of white salt has greatly increased in Cheshire : about a century ago, the salt manufacture there was not more than adequate to its own consumption, and that of a few adjoining counties. From May 1805, to May 1806, the salt manufactured at the Cheshire brine-pits, * exclusively of that made at Nantwicht and Frodsham, which was disposed of for home consumption, amounted to 16,590 tons, 77 bushels. The annual average of *At Lawton, Wheelock, Roughwood; in the townships of Anderton, Bechton, Leftwich, Middlewich, and in the neighbourhood of Northwich and Winsford. + The manufacture of salt at Nantwich was much more extensive, in the early part of the seventeenth century than at the present time; for it appears, by some papers relating to the brine-pits, written in the reign of Charles I. that there were then two hundred and sixteen wich houses, or salt-works, at Nantwich; there is now only -one. Frodsham, and on the Lancashire side of the Mersey; but the greater part is carried to Liverpool, whence it is exported to Ireland, and the ports of the Baltic.--The average quantity sent down the Weever from Northwich for the last ten years is 51,109 tons*. In 1805, there were 2950 hands employed in the manufacture of salt. An Account of the Vahabies. white salt sent down the Weever from Winsford and Northwich, for the last ten years, has been 139,317 tons; this has been principally for the supply of the fisheries in Scotland, Ireland, the ports of the Baltic, the United States of America, Newfoundland, and the British Colonies. The quantity manufactured at Northwich is supposed to have been doubled within the last ten years. Messrs. Marshall and Naylor, proprietors of some brine-pits at Anderton, having turned their attention to the investigation of means by which [From Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan.] salt-works might be constructed at the least expense, and the consumption of fuel diminished, have erected works upon this principle, at which they make a large grained salt, peculiarly well adapted to the purpose of curing fish and provisions.-The proprietors, in the year 1806, obtained a patent for making this salt, for which there have been already very large demands; large quantities having been exported to Scotland, Ireland, Newfoundland, and Sweden. The discovery of the rock salt in 1670, forms an important æra in the history of the staple commodity of the county. There are now ten or twelve pits of rocksalt worked in the neighbourhood of Northwich, in the townships of Witton, Marston, and Wincham; from some of these pits they raise a hundred tons in a day. The rock-salt is sent down the Weever from Northwich; about a third of it is refined at the salt-works at The founder of this sect was named Abd al Vehab (the servant of the bestower of all benefits.) He was born in the neighbourhood of Hilla, on the banks of the Euphrates, but brought up as an adopted son, by a person of some consequence, named Ibrahim, in the district of Nejid. During his youth he was considered as superior to all his contemporaries, for his ready wit, penetration, and retentive memory. He was also of a very liberal disposition; and whenever he received any money from his patron, he distributed it immediately amongst his inferiors. After having acquired the common principles of education, and a little knowledge of the law, he travelled to Ispahan, late the capital of Persia, where he studied for some time under the most celebrated masters of that city. He then travelled to Khorassan, and thence to Ghizni; whence he proceeded to Irac : Holland's Agricultural Survey of Cheshire, where may be found a full account of the process of raising the brine and making the salt, with many other particulars relating to the salt manufactured from the brine-pits, as well as that procured from the salt mincs. and, |