NEW ENGLAND, late a province of the British empire in America, is bounded on the north by Canada, on the eaft by Nova Scotia and the Atlantic ocean, on the fouth by the Atlantic and Long Island found, and on the weft by New York. It lies in the form of a quarter of a circle. Its weft line, beginning at the mouth of Byram river, which empties into Long Island found at the fouth-west corner of Connecticut, latitude 41°, runs a little east of north, until it ftrikes the 45th degree of latitude, and then

glected to cultivate their lands were to be deprived of, New them; and Europeans were forbidden under a heavy England. penalty to fell them any ftrong liquors or warlike ftores. All those who were detected either in lying, drunkennefs, or dancing, were ordered to be publicly whipped.. But at the fame time that amufements were forbidden equally with vices and crimes, one might be allowed to fwear by paying a penalty of 112d. and to break the fabbath for 21. 195. 94d. Another indulgence allowed was, to atone, by a fine, for a neglect of prayer, or for uttering a rash oath. But it is ftill more extraordinary, that the worship of images was forbidden to the Puritans on pain of death; which was alfo inflicted on Roman Catholic priests, who should return to the colony after they had been banished; and on Quakers who fhould appear again after having been whipped, branded, and expelled. Such was the Quakers abhorrence for these fectaries, who had themselves an perfecuted averfion for every kind of cruelty, that whoever either brought one of them into the country, or harboured him but for one hour, was liable to pay a confiderable fine.

New reft of the year. At laft fome Brownifts, headed by England. Mr Robinson, whom Neal ftyles the Father of the Independents, who in 1610 had been driven from England by perfecution, fled to Holland, and fettled at Leyden; but in 1621 determined, with Mr Brewfter affiftant-preacher to Mr Robinfon, to found a church for their fect in the new hemifphere. They therefore purchased, in 1521, the charter of the English North Virginia company. Forty-one families, making in all 120 perfons, landed in the beginning of a very hard winter, and found a country entirely covered with wood, which offered a very melancholy profpect to men already exhaufted with the fatigues of their voyage. Near one half perished either by cold, the fcurvy, or other diftrefs. The courage of the reft was beginning to fail; when it was revived by the arrival of 60 favage warriors, who came to them in the fpring, headed by their chief. The old tenants affigned for ever to the new ones all the lands in the neighbourhood of the fettle ment they had formed, under the name of New Plymouth; and one of the favages who understood a little English staid to teach them how to cultivate the maize, and inftruct them in the manner of fishing upon their coaft.

Settlements

This kindness enabled the colony to wait for the companions they expected from Europe with feeds, with domeftic animals, and with every affiftance they wanted. At first these fuccours arrived but flowly; but the perfecution of the Puritans in England increased the number of profelytes to fuch a degree in America, that in 1630 they were obliged to form different fettlements, of which Boston foon became the principal. Thefe first fettlers were not merely ecclefiaftics, who had been deprived of their preferments on account of their opinions; nor thofe fectaries influenced by new opinions, that are fo frequent among the common people. There were among them feveral perfons of high rank, who, having embraced Puritanifm, had taken the precaution to fecure themselves an afylum in thefe diftant regions. They had caufed houses to be built, and lands to be cleared, with a view of retiring there, if their endeavours in the cause of civil and religious liberty fhould prove abortive.

Raynal's The inhabitants of New England lived peaceably for Hitory of a long time, without any regular form of policy. Their European charter had indeed authorized them to establish any mode of government they might choose; but these enthufiafts were not agreed among themselves upon the plan of their republic, and government did not pay fufficient attention to them to urge them to fecure their own tranquillity. At length they grew fenfible of the neceffity of a regular legiflation; and this great work, which virtue and genius united have never attempted but with diffidence, was boldly undertaken by blind fanaticifm. It bore the ftamp of the rude prejudices on which it had been formed. There was in this new code a fingular mixture of good and evil, of wisdom and folly. No man was allowed to have a fhare in the government except he were a member of the established church. Witchcraft, perjury, blafphemy, and adultery, were made capital offences; and children were alfo punished with death, either for eurfing or striking their parents. Marriages, however, were to be folemnized by the magiftrate. The price of corn was fixed at 25. 11d. per bufhel. The favages who ne4

2

Firft code

of laws.

Thofe unfortunate members of the colony, who, lefs violent than their brethren, ventured to deny the coercive power of the magistrate in matters of religion, were perfecuted with till greater rigour. This was confidered as blafphemy by those very divines who had rather chofen to quit their country than to show any deference to Epifcopal authority. This fyftem was fupported by the feverities of the law, which attempted to put a stop to every difference in opinion, by inflicting capital punishment on all who diffented. Those who were either convicted, or even fufpected, of entertaining fentiments of toleration, were expofed to fuch cruel oppreffions, that they were forced to fly from their firft afylum, and feek refuge in another. They found one on the fame continent; and as New England had been first founded by perfecution, its limits were extended by it.

This intemperate religious zeal extended itfelf to matters in themselves of the greatest indifference. A proof of this is found in the following public declaration, tranfcribed from the registers of the colony.

3

"It is a circumftance univerfally acknowledged, Law a "that the cuftom of wearing long hair, after the gainst manner of immoral perfons and of the favage In- wearing long hair. "dians, can have been introduced into England only "in facrilegious contempt of the exprefs command of "God, who declares that it is a fhameful practice for

any man who has the leaft care for his foul to wear "long hair. As this abomination excites the indig"nation of all pious perfons; we, the magiftrates, in "our zeal for the purity of the faith, do exprefsly "and authentically declare, that we condemn the im"pious custom of letting the hair grow; a cuftom "which we look upon to be very indecent and difho"neft, which horribly disguises men, and is offenfive "to modeft and fober perfons, in as much as it cor-rupts good manners. We therefore, being juftly "incenfed against this fcandalous cuftom, do defire, "advife, and earnestly requeft all the elders of our "continent, zealously to fhow their averfion for this "odious practice, to exert all their power to put a "ftop to it, and especially to take care that the mem"bers of their churches be not infected with it; in

66

"order

New "order that thofe perfons who, notwithstanding these England. "rigorous prohibitions, and the means of correction "that shall be used on this account, shall still perfist in "this custom, fhall have both God and man at the fame "time against them."

This feverity foon exerted itself against the Quakers. They were whipped, banished, and imprifoned. The behaviour of these new enthufiafts, who in the midst of tortures and ignominy praised God, and called for bleffings upon men, infpired a reverence for their perfons and opinions, and gained them a number of profelytes. This circumftance exafperated their perfecutors, and hurried them on to the most atrocious acts of violence; and they caufed five of them, who had returned clandeftinely from banishment, to be hanged. This fpirit of perfecution was, however, at laft fuppreffed by the interpofition of the mother-country, from whence it had been brought. Charles II. moved with the fufferings of the Quakers, put a stop to them by a proclamation in 1661; but he was never able totally to extinguish the fpirit of perfecution that prevailed in America.

The colony had placed at their head Henry Vane, the fon of that Sir Henry Vane who had fuch a remarkable share in the disturbances of his country. This obftinate and enthufiaftic young man had contrived to revive the questions of grace and free will. The difputes upon these points ran very high; and would probably have plunged the colony into a civil war, if feveral of the favage nations united had not happened at that very time to fall upon the plantations of the difputants, and to maffacre great numbers of them. The colonists, heated with their theological contests, paid at first very little attention to this confiderable lofs. But the danger at length became fo urgent and fo general, that all took up arms. As foon as the enemy were repulfed, the colony refumed its former diffenfions; and the frenzy which they excited broke out in 1692 in a way marked with as many atrocious inftances of violence as any ever recorded in history.

ExtraordiThere lived in a town of New England, called nary perfe- Salem, two young women who were fubject to convulcution of fions, accompanied with extraordinary fymptoms. Their

witches.

father, minifter of the church, thought that they were bewitched; and having in confequence caft his fufpicions upon an Indian girl who lived in his houfe, he compelled her by harsh treatment to confefs that the was a witch. Other women, upon hearing this, immediately believed, that the convulfions, which proceeded only from the nature of their fex, were owing to the fame caufe. Three citizens, cafually named, were immediately thrown into prifon, accused of witchcraft, hanged, and their bodies left expofed to wild beafts and birds of prey. A few days after, 16 other perfons, together with a counfellor, who, becaufe he refufed to plead against them, was fuppofed to share in their guilt, fuffered in the fame manner. From this inftant, the imagination of the multitude was inflamed with these horrid and gloomy fcenes. Children of ten years of age were put to death, young girls were stripped naked, and the marks of witchcraft fearched for upon their bodies with the most indecent curiofity; and thofe fpots of the fcurvy which age impreffes upon the bodies of old men were taken for evident figns of the

infernal power. In default of thefe, torments were New employed to extort confeffions dictated by the execu- England, tioners themselves. If the magiftrates, tired out with executions, refused to punish, they were themselves ac cused of the crimes they tolerated; the very ministers of religion raised falfe witneffes against them, who made them forfeit with their lives the tardy remorfe excited in them by humanity. Dreams, apparitions, terror,* and confternation of every kind, increased these prodigies of fully and horror. The prifons were filled, the gibbets left ftanding, and all the citizens involved in gloomy apprehenfions. The moft prudent quitted the country stained with the blood of its inhabitants; and nothing elfe than the total and immediate fubverfion of the colony was expected, when, on a fudden, all eyes were opened at once, and the excess of the evil awakened the minds which it had at first stupified. Bitter and painful remorfe was the immediate confequence; the mercy of God was implored by a general faft, and public prayers were offered up to afk forgiveness for the prefumption of having fuppofed that Heaven could have been pleased with facrifices with which it could only have been offended.

Pofterity will probably never know exactly what was the cause or remedy of this dreadful diforder. It had, perhaps, its first origin in the melancholy which those perfecuted enthufiafts had brought with them from their own country, which had increased with the fcurvy they had contracted at sea, and had gathered fresh strength from the inconveniences and hardships infeparable from a change of climate and manner of living. The contagion, however, ceafed like all other epidemical diftempers, exhausted by its very communication. A perfect calm fucceeded this agitation; and the Puritans of New England have never fince been feized with fo gloomy a fit of enthusiasm.

But though the colony has renounced the perfecuting. fpirit which hath stained all religious fects with blood,. it has preferved fome remains, if not of intoleration, at leaft of feverity, which remind us of thofe melancholy days in which it took its rife. Some of its laws are ftill too severe.

New England had, however, fome remedy against bad laws, in the conftitution of its mother-country, where the people who have the legislative power in their own hands are at liberty to correct abuses; and it has others derived from its fituation, which open a vast field to industry and population.

6

The clearing of the lands in this colony is not di- Manner of rected by chance as in the other provinces. This mat- fettlement ter from the first was fubjected to laws which are still in this colony. religiously obferved. No citizen whatever has the liberty of fettling even upon unoccupied land. The government, defirous of preferving all its members from the inroads of the favages, and of placing them in a condition to share in the protection of a well-regulated fociety, hath ordered that whole villages fhould be formed at once. As foon as 60 families offer to build a church, maintain a clergyman, and pay a schoolmafter, the general affembly allot them a fituation, and permit them to have two reprefentatives in the legislative body of the colony. The district affigned them always borders upon the lands already cleared, and generally contains 60,000 square acres. These new people choose the fituation moft convenient for their habita

New

tion, which is ufually of a fquare figure. The church England. is placed in the centre; the colonifts divide the land among themselves, and each inclofes his property with a hedge. Some woods are referved for a common; and thus New England is conftantly enlarging its territory, though it ftill continues to make one complete and well conftituted province.

Divifion,

&c.

Face of the @ountry,

&c.

The country was divided into four ftates, which at first had no connexion with one another. The neceffity of maintaining an armed force against the favages, obliged them to form a confederacy in 1643, when they took the name of the United Colonies. In confequence of this league, two deputies from each establishment used to meet in a ftated place to deliberate upon the common affairs of New England, according to the inftructions they had received from the affembly by which they were fent. This affociation laid no conftraint upon the right of every individual to act entire ly as he pleased, without either the permiffion or approbation of the mother-country. All the fubmiffion required of thefe provinces was merely to acknowledge the kings of England for their fovereigns. Charles II. wifhed to make them more dependent. The province of Maffachufet's bay, which, though the fmalleft, was the richest and the most populous of the four, being guilty of fome mifdemeanour against government, the king feized that opportunity of taking away its charter in 1684 and it remained without one till the revolution; when it received another, which, however, did not answer its claims or expectations. The crown referved to itself the right of nominating the governor, and appointing to all military employments, and to all principal pofts in the civil and juridical departments: it allowed the people of the colony their legislative power, and gave the governor a negative voice and the command of the troops, which fecured him a fufficient influence to enable him to maintain the prerogative of the mother-country in all its force. The provinces of Connecticut and Rhode-Ifland, by timely fubmiffion, prevented the punishment which that of Maffachufets had incurred, and retained their original charter. That of New-Hampshire had been always regulated by the fame mode of adminiftration as the province of Masfachufet's-bay. The fame governor prefided over the whole colony, but with regulations adapted to the conftitution of each province. To the above ftates, another has been added fince the revolution, viz. VERMONT. These ftates are fubdivided into counties, and the counties into townships.

New England is a high, hilly, and in fome parts a mountainous country, formed by nature to be inhabimountains, ted by a hardy race of free, independent republicans. -The mountains are comparatively small, running nearly north and fouth in ridges parallel to each other. Between these ridges flow the great rivers in majeftic meanders, receiving the innumerable rivulets and larger ftreams which proceed from the mountains on each fide. To a fpectator on the top of a neighbouring mountain, the vales between the ridges, while in a ftate of nature, exhibit a romantic appearance. They feem an ocean of woods, fwelled and depreffed in its furface like that of the great ocean itfelf. A richer though less romantic view is prefented, when the valleys, by induftrious husbandmen, have been cleared of their natural growth; and the fruit of their labour ap

New

pears in loaded orchards, extenfive meadows, covered with large herds of theep and neat cattle, and rich England. fields of flax, corn, and the various kinds of grain. Thefe valleys, which have received the expreffive name of interval lands, are of various breadths, from two to 20 miles; and by the annual inundations of the rivers which flow through them, there is frequently an accumu lation of rich fat foil left upon their furface when the waters retire.

There are four principal ranges of mountains, paffing nearly from north-eaft to fouth-weft through New England. Thefe confift of a multitude of paralrel ridges, each having many fpurs, deviating from the courfe of the general range; which spurs are again broken into irregular hilly land. The main ridges terminate, fometimes in high bluff heads, near the fea coaft, and fometimes by a gradual defcent in the interior part of the country. One of the main ranges runs between Connecticut and Hudfon's rivers. This range branches and bounds the vales through which flows the Housatonick river. The most eaftern ridge of this range terminates in a bluff head at Meriden; a fecond ends in like manner at Willingford, and a third at New Haven. In Lyme, on the east fide of Connecticut river, another range of mountains commences, forming the eastern boundary of Connecticut vale. This range trends northerly, at the distance, generally, of about 10 or 12 miles east from the river, and paffes through Maffachufets, where the range takes the name of Chickabee Mountain; thence croffing into New Hampshire, at the diftance of about 20 miles from the Maffachufets line, it runs up into a very high peak, called Monadnick, which terminates this ridge of the range. A western ridge continues, and in about latitude 43° 20' runs up into Sunipee mountains. About 50 miles further, in the fame ridge, is Moofcoog mountain. A third range begins near Stonington in Connecticut. It takes its courfe north-eafterly, and is fometimes broken and difcontinued; it then rifes again, and ranges in the fame direction into New Hampshire, where, in latitude 43° 25', it runs up into a high peak called Cowfawafkog. The fourth range has a humble beginning about Hopkinton in Maffachufets. The eastern ridge of this range runs north by Watertown and Concord, and croffes Merrimack river at Pantucket Falls. In New Hampshire, it rifes into feveral high peaks, of which the White mountains are the principal. From these White mountains a range continues north-eaft, croffing the east boundary of New Hampshire, in latitude 44° 30', and forms the height of land between Kennebek and Chaudiere rivers. Thefe ranges of mountains are full of lakes, ponds, and fprings of water, that give rife to numberless ftreams of various fizes, which, interlocking each other in every direction, and falling over the rocks in romantic cafcades, flow meandering into the rivers below. No country on the globe is better watered than New England.

On the fea-coaft the land is low, and in many parts level and fandy. In the valleys, between the forementioned ranges of mountains, the land is generally broken, and in many places rocky, but of a strong rich foil, capable of being cultivated to good advantage, which alfo is the cafe with many fpots even on the tops of the mountains.

The

Soil, productions, &0.

10

The foil, as may be collected from what has been faid, must be very various. Each tract of different foil is diftinguished by its peculiar vegetation, and is pronounced good, middling, or bad, from the fpecies of trees which it produces and from one fpecies generally predominating in each foil, has originated the defcriptive names of oak land, birch, beech, and chefnut lands, pine, barren, maple, afh, and cedar fwamps, as each fpecies happens to predominate. Intermingled with thofe predominating fpecies are walnut, firs, elm, hemlock, magnolia, moofe-wood, faffafras, &c. &c. The beft lands produce walnut and chefnut; the next, beech and oak ; lands of the third quality produce fir and pitch-pine; the next, whortleberry and barberry bushes; and the poorest produce nothing but marfhy imperfect fhrubs. Among the flowering trees and fhrubs in the forefts are the red-flowering maple, the faffafras, the locufttree, the tulip-tree, honeyfuckle, wild rofe, dogwood, elm, leather-tree, laurel, hawthorn, &c. which in the fpring of the year give the woods a most beautiful appearance, and fill them with a delicious fragrance. Among the fruits which grow wild, are the feveral kinds of grapes; which are fmall, four, and thick fkinned. The vines on which they grow are very luxuriant, often overfpreading the highest trees in the forefts; and without doubt, may be greatly meliorated by proper cultivation. Befides thefe, are the wild cherries, white and red mulberries, cranberries, walnuts, hazel nuts, chefnuts, butter nuts, beech nuts, wild plums and pears, whortle-berries, bilberries, goofeberries, ftrawberries, &c.

The foil in the interior country is calculated for the culture of Indian corn, rye, oats, barley, flax, and hemp (for which the foil and climate are peculiarly proper), buck wheat, beans, peas, &c. In many of the inland parts wheat is raifed in large quantities; but on the fea-coaft it has never been cultivated with fuccefs, being fubject to blafts. The fruits which the country yields from culture, are apples in the greatest plenty; of these cyder is made, which conftitutes the principal drink of the inhabitants; alfo, pears of various forts, quinces, peaches (from which is made peach brandy), plums, cherries, apricots, &c. The culinary plants are fuch as have already been enumerated. New England is a fine grazing country; the valleys between the hills are generally interfected with brooks of water, the banks of which are lined with a tract of rich meadow or interval land. The high and rocky ground is, in many parts, covered with honeyfuckle, and generally affords the fineft of pafture. It will not be a matter of wonder, therefore, that New England boasts of raifing fome of the fineft cattle in the world; nor will fle be envied, when the labour of railing them is taken into view. Two months of the botteft feafon in the year the farmers are employed in procuring food for their cattle; and the cold winter is fpent in dealing it out to them. The pleasure and profit of doing this, is however a fatisfying compenfation to the honeft and induftrious farmer.

One

Population, New England is the most populous part of the U. manners, nited States. It contains at leaft 823,000 fouls. and diver fifth of thefe are fencible men. New England then, fxs. fhould any great and fudden emergency require it,

could furnish an army of 164,600 men. The great body New of these are land-holders and cultivators of the foil. England. The former attaches them to their country; the latter, by making them ftrong and healthy, enables them to defend it. The boys are early taught the use of arms, and make the best of foldiers. Few countries on earth, of equal extent and population, can furnish a more formidable army than this part of the union.

New England may, with propriety, be called a nurfery of men, whence are annually tranfplanted, into other parts of the United Sates, thousands of its natives. The state of Vermont, which is but of yefterday, and contains about 100,000 fouls, has received more inhabitants from Connecticut than from any other ftate; and yet between the years 1774 and 1782, notwithstanding her numerous emigrations to Vermont, Sufquehannah, and other places, and the depopulation occafioned by a feven years bloody war, it is found, from an actual cenfus of the inhabitants in the years before mentioned, that they have increased from 197,856, their number in 1774, to 290,150, their number in 1782. Vaft numbers of the New Englanders, fince the war, have emigrated into the northern parts of New York, into Kentucky and the Western Territory, and into Georgia; and fome are scattered into every state, and every town of note in the union.

The New Englanders are generally tall, ftout, and well built. They glory, and perhaps with juftice, in poffeffing that fpirit of freedom which induced their ancestors to leave their native country, and to brave the dangers of the ocean and the hardships of fettling in a wilderness. Their education, laws, and fituation, ferve to infpire them with high notions of liberty. Their jealoufy is awakened at the first motion toward an invafion of their rights. They are indeed often jealous to excefs; a circumftance which is a frightful fource of imaginary grievances, and of innumerable groundless fufpicions and unjust complaints against government. A law, refpecting the defcent of eftates which are generally held in fee fimple, which for fubftance is the fame in all the New England ftates, is the chief foundation and protection of this liberty. By this law, the poffeffions of the father are to be equally divided among all the children, excepting the eldest fon, who has a double portion. In this way is preferved that happy mediocrity among the people, which, by inducing economy and industry, removes from them temptations to luxury, and forms them to habits of: fobriety and temperance. At the fame time, their induftry and frugality exempt them from want, and from the neceffity of fubmitting to any encroachment on their liberties.

In New England, learning is more generally diffufed among all ranks of people than in almost any other part of the globe; arifing from the excellent eftablishment of fchools in every township. Another fource of information to the people is the newspapers, of which not lefs than 30,000 are printed every week in New England, and circulated in almost every town and village in the country. A perfon of mature age, who cannot both read and write, is rarely to be found. By means of this general eftablishment of fchools, the extenfive circulation of newfpapers, and the confe quent fpread of learning, every township throughout the country is furnished with men capable of conduct