wafted the treasures of Bengal, reduced Bombay to a flate of infolvency, and expofed our conduct to the whole world, as a lafting monument of perfidy and weaknefs. We now arrive at the most eventful period that the English have experienced in Afia, furpaffing every previous misfortune in the iniquity from whence it fprang, and in the calamity with which is was attended. From the date of the difgraceful treaty with Hyder Ally in 1769, till the year 1780, our rulers in the Carnatic feemed to have for gotten that he ever had invaded them, or rather that he ever could invade them again. The fuperior genius of Hyder perceived, that the territories and pofition of the English, as well as their proficiency in military fcience, would render them defirable allies, and give unequivocal fuperiority to his forces when conjoined with theirs; but experience proved, that he could not rely on men fo difunited and unprincipled. To adopt a neutral fyftem, neither promifed fecurity, nor fuited his decifive character. What then remained but hoftile measures, against a nation with whom alliance or neutrality appeared alike unfafe?-His campaigns during the preceding war expofed their vulnerable parts;-their difregard of military preparation marked out the Carnatic as an inviting field of new acquirement; and the growing profligacy of each fucceeding Government, improving on the rapacity of that which preceded it, confirm the hatred which our previous conductjuftified. Hyder's enmity was roufed to indignation by our attack on Mahee, a French fettlement under his protection: ftill more was he incensed at the negotiation with Bazalet Jung, brother of the Nizam, and proprietor of Adoni, by which that prince ceded to the English the Guntoor Circar, upon condition that a force should be employed in his defence.

This ftipulated force actually marched under Colonel Harper to Inikonda, in its way to Adoni; but in consequence of various procraftinations fo many months were wafted, that Hyder had full leisure to post a ftrong party at the entrance of the pafs near Inikonda. The Colonel, finding the enemy in great ftrength, and that their orders were to attack the English if they should attempt to march across Hyder's territory, receded from the enterprise.

Bazalet Jung, on this occafion, experienced the treachery of Europeans, for, relying on our good faith, he had ceded the Guntoor Circar, and afterwards difcovered that the movement of the troops towards him was delufive, and that the delays which enabled Hyder to prevent their march to Adoni, were fraudulently contrived by the Madras Government, in order to defeat the performance of their ftipulations. On the

other hand, had we fulfilled our engagements with Bazalet Jung-had we marched a respectable army to Adoni, fuch were the advantages of that fituation, that while we could have maintained it, no power in India would have ventured in an ion of the Carnatic; for Adoni menaces Myfore, Beddanore, the countries of the Mahrattas, and the Decan, while the natural ftrength of that fortrefs, and the refources it commands, fecure it, if well garrisoned against any danger from a native power: but all thefe confiderations were facrificed-Bazalet Jung was displeased-the Nizam offendedand Hyder exasperated.

1

Every power in India faw the danger that threatened the Prefidency of Madras; and the Carnatic was actually over-run by Hy der with an army of 10,000 men, at the very moment when that Government boasted that he durft not meditate hoftility.The melancholy and difgraceful events that followed, are too unpleasing to admit of obfervation.

The fate of Colonel Baillie's detachments, and the fubfequent retreat of the army to Madras, are fresh in every memory. After the furrender of Arcot and the chief forts to Hyder, he appointed renters-collected the revenues-coined money-and exercifed all acts of fovereignty, being de facto Nabob of the Carnatic. It is unnecessary to enlarge on the fubfequent tranfactions: the arrival of Sir Eyre Coote from Bengal-the junction of a detachment from thence with Colonel Pearfe- the battles of Porto Novo, Pulaloor, and Shulengur, and the other operations of the Carnatic army; or to recapitulate the fucceffes of the fquadron under Sir Edward Hughes †, against Negapatam and Trincomale, which formed the concluding incidents of the year 1981. It is only meant to offer fome remarks on our political fituation in those countries, in order to prove the errors of our paft conduct, and to fuggeft what appears to be the least objectionable mode of permanent reform.

N 0 T

E.

It is fuperior, in a topographical point of view, to any interior pofition in the peninfula.

†That diftinguished Admiral exhibited, in the reduction of thofe important places, the fame fuperior conduct which he afterwards displayed in his naval actions with the French.

Having had the good fortune to serve with my regiment on board the fquadron during the course of thofe engagements, I cannot mention the name of Sir Edward Hughes, without expreffing the warmeft fentiments of attachment and refpect, due to fuch profeffional merits, and ineftimable private worth.

In this ftage of our difafters, the fragments of the Cape expedition arrived at Madrafs. It is impoffible to impress your Lordship's mind with any adequate reprefentation of the deplorable condition of that Prefidency, or would it be an agreeable tafk to expatiate on fuch extremes of human en ex wretchedness as we there experienced. If any scene of danger and diftrefs could infure concord and co-operation among men, the full display of those virtues night have been expected at Madras.

Hyder was in poffeffion of the country Tippoo about this time cut off our fouthern detachment with Colonel Braithwaite - the French were landing a body, apparently of fufficient force to decide the conteft. In this fituation, our aprehenfions of the enemy, as well as the fire of recovering the reputation we had loft, fhould have excited us to act with cordial effort; indeed, no prof pect of defence remained, but in the united energy of every individual connected with our caufe. (To be continued.)

Intellectual powers of the American Indians.

O form a juft eftimate of their genius Taft menul powers, ofore facts are wanting, and great allowance is to be made for those circumftances of their fituation which call for a difplay of particular talents only. This done, we fhall probably find that they are formed, in mind as well as in body, on the fame module with the "hom fapiens Europaus.”

The principles of their fociety forbidding all compulfion, they are to he led to duty and to enterprize by perfonal influence and perfuafion. Hence eloquence in council, bravery and addrefs in war, become the foundations of all confequence with them. To thefe acquirements all their faculties are directed. Of their bravery and address in war we have multiplied proofs, because we have been the subjects on which they were exereited. Of their eminence in oratory we have fewer examples, because it is dif played chiefly in their own councils. Some, however, we have of very fuperior luftre. I may challenge the whole orations of Demof thenes and Cicero, and of any more eminent orator, if Europe has furnished more eminent, to produce a single paffage fuperior to the Speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, to Lord Dunmore, when governor of this state. And, as a teftimony of their talents in this line, I beg leave to introduce it, firft ftating the incidents neceffary for understanding it. In the spring of the year 1774 a robbery and murder were committed on an inhabitant of the frontiers of Virginia, by two Indians of the Shawanee tribe. The N O T E.

* February 1782.

neighbouring whites, according to their cuftom, undertook to punish this outrage in a fummary way. Colonel Crefap, a man infamous for the many murders he had committed on these much-injured people, cailected a party, and proceeded down the Kanaway in queft of vengeance. Unfortunately a canoe of women and children, with one man only, was feen coming from the oppofite fhore, unarmed, and unfufpect ing any hoftile attack from the whites. Crefap and his party concealed themtelves on the bank of the river, and the moment the canoe reached the shore, fingled out their objects, and, at one fire, killed every perfon in it. This happened to be the family of Logan, who had long been diftinguished as a friend of the whites. This unworthy return provoked his vengeance. He accordingly fignalized himself in the war which enfued. In the autumn of the fame year a decifive battle was fought at the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, between the collected forces of the Shawances, Minthe Virginia militia. The Indians were degoes, and Delawares, and a detachment of feated, and fued for peace. Logan, however, duidained to be seen among the fupphants. But, left the fincerity of a treaty fhould be diftrufted, from which fa diftinguifhed a chief abfented fimfelf, he sent by a meffenger the following fpeech to be delivered to Lord Dunmore:

"I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the laf long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they pafled, and faid, "Logan is the friend of white men." I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Crefap, the laft føring in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not fparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have fought it; I have killed many; I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Lagan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to fave his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one."

The authenticity of this fpeech, which was published about ten years ago, is un-queftonable; and its merit is of the firft luftre. There is no paffage in Homer, or in any poet of a barbarous age, that can be brought into comparison.

Political

and 1785.

(Continued from page 96.)

HE bare relation of the act, that an anti

long and early renowned in commerce, had been brought to ruin and beggary, by depriving them of their natural right to the navigation and be nefits of a river which ran through their terri torie, seemed at once fufficient to decide the question in the mind of the hearers, and to unite them in a general reprobation of fo flagrant an injustice. Upon the fame principle, the deliverance of a people from fo cruel a mark of bondage, and the restoration to their natural rights and former happiness, seemed an atchievement fo glorious, as to be worthy and characteriftic of a hero. The former greatnefs, fplendour, and opulence of Antwerp, were artfully dwelt upon with a view to the paffions; and with great effect, though little truth or justice, its decline was attributed entirely to this odious meafure, to which the Dutch were faid to be prompted by their jealousy and avarice, in order to monopolize all commerce, and that Amfter damn in particular might rife to greatness upon her ruins. With an equal view to the paffions, and with full lefs truth or juftice, the Schelde was magnificently reprefented as the finest river in Europe, as if its beauty could have any thing to do with the questions of right, or of political neceffity. It may be easily judged, that the gene al and established character of avidity attributed to the Dutch, with the harsh, arbitrary, and monopolizing fpirit, which they had ever difplayed in commercial matters, could not but operate greatly to their disadvantage upon the opinions and prejudices of mankind.

The States, however, had many ftrong grounds of argument and fact to oppose to plaufible and artful reprefentations, or to prejudiced and haftily-conceived opinion. It was faid to be abfurd, in the present state of things and of the world, to recur to what was called Natural Rights, in order to overthrow thofe focial compacts between men, and political conventions between states, which are the foundation and the fecurity of all public and private property. What a picture would Europe exh bit, if all its powers were now obliged to recur to original principles, and to relinquish all thofe poffeflions, which fraud or force, war or treaty, through the revolutions of a long series of ages, has enabled them to acquire! It would be unioofing all the bands that unite mankind; throwing them back again into a ftate of favage nature; and rendering the whole a chaos of endless confufion and diforder.

It was however denied, that a river's paffing in its inland courfe through tome part of a prince's territories, conftituted any fuch natural right, when its opening to the fea was in the poffeffion of another fovereign. But, at once to do away all the pathetic declamation thrown out upon this subject, it was strenuously infifted, that the whole courfe of the two branches of the Schelde, which paffed with the dominions of Holland, was entirely artificial; that it was Gent. Mag. March, 1788.

those admirable dykes which excing the aftonifhment of mankind, the waters of the Schelde, stagnating in shallow lakes 2nd immenfe marshes, had never reached the fea in any distinct or fufficient portion for the purposes of navigation.➡ That the lower Schelde being thus originally made and ftill preserved by Dutchmen, as they had before created and fill preferved the two provinces of Holland and Frifeland, so it was equally their own property. That as it could not even be imagined that those immense labours were intended for the use of others, fo their benefits, as well as the ftupendous works themselves, must be confidered, upon every principle of natural right, of law, and of justice, as their own exclufive property, independent of all treaties whatever.

In answer to the tragical reprefentations, by which the degradation and fall of Antwerp from its ancient splendour and greatness were charged entirely to Dutch avarice and defpotism, particularly in the measure of fhutting up the Schelde, it was observed, that the departure of foreign commerce from that city had originated from various well-known caufes, many of them antecedent to, and all of them differing widely from, that only one which was now affigned. Antwerp had been faft declining for more than a century before the commencement of the troubles and wars of the Netherlands. Commerce had branched out into other channels; and Amfterdam, though long before confiderable, had, within that period, from its fuperior advantage, and other concurring causes, risen to be the first commercial city in Europe. Antwerp, however, continued great and opulent, and notwithstanding the loffes which it fuftained by its memorable fiege, would have been ftill confiderable, if its ruin had not been completed by the fame caufes and means which defolated Bruges, and other great cities of the Netherlands.The defpotifm, cruelty, and religious perfecution of the Spaniards, obliged the merchants and me nufacturers to abandon them all, and to convey their commerce and their arts, along with themfelves, to other countries. It was observed, as a curious circumstance with respect to this subject, that Spain, the fovereignty of Antwerp, had been no less interested than Holland, in the meature of thutting up the Schelde; for that, as the celebrated statesman John de Witte fays in his Memoirs, the greatness and opulence of that city were not compatible with the views of Spanish defpotifm.

The real caufe, however, of the States being ftruck with fuch apprehension at the demand of opening the Schelde, was not on their fides explicitly stated; as that, befides being an acknowledgment of their fears, would have precifely pointed out the objects of their terror, and shewn in what manner their ruin could with the greatest ease be accomplished.

The different branches of the Seide interT fected

hoftility, and a déclaration of war on the part of the republic.

As a certain degree of marine force would, however, be neceifar for the accomplishment of this dangerous purple, and that the emperor poffeffed none at prefent, report and apprehenfion ferved to fupply that immediate defect. It was given out, and by many credited, that as that fovereign and Ruffia had lately been in the habit of playing into each others hands, with respect to Turkey, the Crimea, the Black Sea, and the Danube, fo they were likewife now in concert in the establishment of the Schelde projea; and that the latter of these potent allies having failed in all her views of obtaining a port, at any price, in the Mediterranean, or ocean, the former, would accommodate her with the ufe of the Scheide, as a place of arms, and itation for her navy. Such a report and opinion, however founded, could not but greatly heighten the diftrets and apprehension of Holland.

The test of war or peace announced by the emperor, without waiting the refult of the negociations at Bruffels, or regarding the media. tion of France, was now to be put to iffue; although the ftater, as a proof of their moderation and conciliatory difpofition, had removed the guard-fhip from before Lillo; and had even rejected the propofal of repairing the fortifications of Matricht (critical as the fituation of that place was, and much as the repairs were wanted) left its being adopted at such a featon fhould have given any umbiage to that prince. The emperor had, however, previously offered to remit the whole, ar inoll of his other pretenfions, upon the condition of opening the Scheide in that perfect manner which he prescribed, fo as that the navigation might be intirely free and unlimited as in the open seas, and no claim or exercife of fovereignty pretended.On the other hand, the states relaxed fo far in this matter, as to offer to permit a limited navigation on it, fubject to certain reftrictions, and confined, as we take it, to his fubjects in the Netherlauds only.

Two imperial veffels had been preparing for feme time to make the destined experiment upon the conduct of the Dutch with refpect to the Schelde; it was to determine whether they would perfevere, at all events, in the affertion of their fuppofed right, or whether they would ink under the well-grounded apprehention of their great opponent's power. Every meature was used, both at Bruffels and Paris, to induce the emperor to wave this meature of decifion, and to wait the refult of the negociations; but e was determined in his object, and confirmed the threat of count Belgiojofa, by declaring, That he would confider the first infult offered to Rag upon this occafion as an act of formal

ces.

The imperial brig palled Lillo, and fome other forts, without examination, but getting in fight of a Dutch cutter, belonging to admiral Van Reynit's fquadron, which lay towards the mouth of the river, a boat was fent on board with an officer, who was told by the captain, that he was on his patfage to the fea, and that his inftructions forbade his holding any parley whatever with the officers or fhips of the United ProviaUpon the brig's coming along oa. 8th. fide the Dutch cutter, the captain, waving the imperial inftructions in his hand, refufed to give any farther fatisfaction, and perievered in pursuing his courfe to fea; the commander of the former, after intreaties, threats, and the firing of a gun with powder only, had all failed of effect, in inducing him to drop the defign, and return to Antwerp (the informality. of paffing Lillo without a paffport being offered to be overlooked) he at length fired a fhot with ball, which proving equally fruitless, he poured his broadfide of feven guns into the brig, which did tome damage to the veffel and rigging, but was fortunately guiitiels of spilling blood.

The broadlide being followed by a menace of fending the imperial brig to the bottom, if the did not immediately bring to, the captain found it necessary to comply, and to caft anchor. After various protests, remonftrances, and demands on his fide, to pursue his voyage, with a conftant pofitive refusal to take the veffel back to Antwerp, he at length quitted her, and a Dutch of ficer, with fome feamen, were fent on board.All the circumftances of this tranfaction were magnified to the utmost on the imperial fide; and the charges againit the Dutch, of firing langrigeshot at a defencelets vetfel, and of removing the buoys, and other water-marks on the Schelde, in order that the might be loft on the shoals, were, in the highest degree of colouring, represented as inttances of fingular cruelty and atrocity. It would feem, indeed, that the captain had a very flow and precarious navigation, as it was on the third day from his leaving Antwerp, that this event took place. The veffel from Oftend was likewife flopped in her attempt to país up from the fea; the circumftances being in general firilar, but that do fhots were fired.

Every