rally confidered as foreign to the fpecies of narrative expected from a traveller. Perhaps he had been led to adopt this plan from his having had access to fome private accounts relative to certain tranfactions in Poland; and he has purfued the fame method through the other northern countries, without reflecting that their history was not equally fufceptible of elucidation from any particular lights which his enquiries. had' enabled him to throw upon it. Mr. Coxe's information appears to be every where derived from good authority; and concerning the fovereigns of the different countries, he has had more opportunities of making perfonal remarks, than usually falls to the lot of those who write an account of their travels.

A Tour in the United States of America. (Concluded, from Vol. lvii. p. 418.)

WE E fufpended our account of this Tour at the low grounds of Roanoak, where the inhabitants are planters, ftorekeepers or perfons in trade, and hunters; the laft of whom are chiefly confined to the back country and frontiers next the Indians. In this part of America there is fo little specie in circulation, that commerce is mostly carried on by barter; and by our author's account there is no great occafion for money; for a planter raises almost all his own provifions, and great.part of his clothing, which is cotton. Our author's peregrination towards Chowan-river was far from being enviable. He had to defend himself against the formidable attacks of a fanatical itinerant preacher, at the same time that. he could obtain no refreshment on his way, nor any directions from the natives how to proceed, Happily, at length, he was relieved from this diftressful fituation, by arriving at the hofpitable mansion of Mr. Tyers, who is the only magistrate in a compass of thirty miles, and the traveller had almost pronounced, the only intelligent being.

In paffing Chowan-river, Mr. Smyth obferved numbers of large ferpents, lying upon logs and fallen trees in the water, basking themfelves in the fun. Most of them were of the kind called moccoffon fnakes; but, from the author's defcription of them, we must acknowlege we are at a loss to form any precife idea of the fpecies. They are, fays he, as large as the rattle fnake, but thicker, fhorter, and deftitute of rattles.' This description is fo irreconcileable with our author's ufual perfpicuous manner, that when he paffed the. Chowan-river, his perception feems to have been affected with fome contagious influence from the dullness which he remarked

remarked in the inhabitants of the adjacent country. In ftopping, foon after, at an ordinary inn, he found an excellent dinner, and an agreeable facetious hoft, whose name was Jethroe Sumner, the general Sumner of the American army, who has fince been fo active in the Carolinas. Our author affirms, as a matter of fact, that more than one third of the American general officers have been inn-keepers, and have been chiefly indebted to that circumftance for fuch rank.

If Mr. Smyth's tour in this part of America was not the most pleafing, he has had the addrefs to render the recital of it far from difagreeable to the reader. On the borders of the Tar-river, he was feized with an illness, called a feafoning, of which he lay dangerously indisposed; but on his recovery, he met with fuch a variety of new fcenes, as were, most of them, not unfavourable for a convalefcent. For at this time the occurrences were handfome women, inftances of worse than favage brutality, a very fingular and diverting trick, a beautiful girl, and another fingular trick. He afterwards leads us among woods, glades or favannahs, licks, hunters, and wild horfes; all which, as well as many other fcenes equally grateful to the imagination, our limits will not permit us to defcribe. It would however be unpardonable not to prefent our readers with a small portion at least of such varied entertainment; and fhall therefore afford room for the following extract.

During the ten days of my refidence at this place, we had frequent alarming accounts of the attacks, depredations, and flocking barbarities committed by the Indians on the White inhabitants, fome distance beyond the Dan, about the head of Smith's River which falls into the Dan on the north fide, almoft oppofite to the lower Sawra Towns.

This induced Mr. Bailey and his family, particularly the lovely, amiable Betfy, to be very strenuous and preffing in per fuading me to defer the profecution of my intended journey, and to proceed no farther, on account of the hardships, difficulties, and imminent dangers I must inevitably encounter, at this inaufpicicus period, in the purfuit of this propofed expedition to Henderson's new fettlement on Kentucky, which was ftill a prodigious distance from me, no less than five hundred miles, and through the Indian country the greater part of the

way.

6

They all very urgently and kindly requested me to remain along with them during the enfuing fummer; and had I at that time attended and given way to the bias of my inclinations, and the feelings of my heart, I fhould certainly have embraced their hofpitable propofal with infinite pleasure.

But when I maturely confidered the fatal consequences of yielding to the pleafing allurements of the fenfes, and the uncontrouled

controuled fway of the paffions, at my early period of life, f fummoned up all my fortitude and refolution to fupport and affift me in the conflict, determined to perfift in my original undertaking, however perilous, and tear myfelf from this enchanting, but dangerous ftate of felicity.

'I therefore finally concluded to proceed, notwithstanding the hazard and jeopardy attending my farther progrefs, arifing from the alarming commotions of the Indians, which were now indeed fufficiently afcertained and authenticated.

When I related to Mr. Bailey the difficulty and hardships [ had already encountered in my journey out to the Sawra Towns, he informed me, that the road or path, along which I had travelled, was firft made and blazed about nine years before; but that it had been fo very little frequented, and the bufhes and underwood had grown up again fo perfectly, that when he had occafion to go to Hillsborough, about two years ago, he could fcarcely perceive it at all; but having a tomahawk with him, he blazed the trees on each fide, as he went along, by which means he was enabled the more readily to find his way in returning; and that it was the remaining appearance of his blazing on the trees, by which I had been able to trace the path, elfe it must have been totally impracticable for me to have found or followed it at all; for he believed no perfon whatever, excepting himself and me, had travelled it for feveral years paft, and very few indeed had ever used it, fince its firft existence.

The reafon of its being fo much unfrequented was, becaufe what little intercourfe and trade the inhabitants of the Sawra fettlements carried on with the fea-ports, and more cultivated part of the country, was either by roads down along the fide of the Dan and the Roanoak to Halifax, and Edenton, in North Carolina, or across the country to Petersburg, and Richmond, &c. on James River, in Virginia.

While I was at the Sawra Towns, one day a little lad of Mr. Bayley's came to acquaint us that he had killed a horn fnake, which being a curiofity that I was extremely defirous of obferving and examining with particular attention, I ac companied him to the place where he faid he had left it; but when we arrived there, to my great difappointment it was not to be found.

'He affured me that it must not have been quite dead, and had recovered fo much as to be able to crawl from the spot on which he had left it, and had fecreted itself fomewhere among the leaves.

. However, every one, and all the inhabitants, with the greatest comfidence afferted and avowed their having seen such fnakes, though very feldom.

They reprefented them to me, as the moft formidable and direful foes in existence to the human race, and to all animation; poisonous and fatal to a degree almoft beyond credibility.

• He

He is defcribed as fomething refembling a black fnake, but thicker, fhorter, and of a colour more inclining to a dark brown. He never bites his adverfary, but has a weapon in his tail, called his fting, of a hard, horny fubftance, in shape and appearance very much like to a cock's fpur: with this he ftrikes his antagonist, or whatever object he aims at, when he leaft expects it, and if it penetrates the skin, it is inevitable and fudden death.

So very virulent is his poifon, that it is reported, if he fhould mifs the object he pointed at, and should strike his horn through the bark of a young fapling tree, if it penetrates into the fap or vital juice, the bark, or rind, will within a few hours, fwell, burst, and peel off, and the tree itself will perish.

As other ferpents crawl upon their bellies, fo can this; but he has another method of moving, peculiar to his own fpecies, which he always adopts when he is in eager purfuit of his prey; he throws himself into a circle running rapidly round, advan-. cing like a hoop, with his tail arifing and pointing forward in the circle, by which he is always in the ready pofition of ftriking.

It is obferved, they only make ufe of this method in attacking; for when they fly from their enemy, they go upon their bellies, like other ferpents.

From the above circumftance, peculiar to themfelves, they have alfo derived the appellation of hoop fnakes.

Being firmly refolved to proceed on my expedition to Kentucky, I endeavoured to hire a guide from this place, but every one that I applied to declined it, both because they were as little acquainted with the way as myself, and on account of the disturbances, and violent outrages lately committed by the Indians, at which every perfon without exception was terrified in the highest degree.

They alfo endeavoured to communicate their panic, fears, and apprehenfions to me; but my ignorance of the actual danger enabled me to refift, with effect, every attack of that nature, and determined me, although I could not obtain either a fervant, guide, or companion, to perfift in the enterprize, however hazardous; and I even concluded to fet out alone.'

It

The traveller, it feems, fet out from Mr. Bailey's agreeable family with fuch heroic refolution, that were the ages of mythology not long fince elapfed, the world might be induced to believe that he was actually accompanied by Minerva. is certain, that had Homer defcribed Ulyffes or Telemachus in fuch circumftances as Mr. Smyth, he would not have thought it advifeable, notwithstanding their natural prudence, to have extricated them from the influence of fo powerful allurement, without the affiftance of that goddefs. And indeed her interpofition might have feemed a lefs improbable inci

dent,

dent, than fuch an exertion of fortitude in a youth unprotected by the aid of any vifible power. But allowing Mr. Smyth every degree of credit with regard to his own conduct, we cannot confider the information which he received from the natives, concerning the horn-fnake, as fufficient authority for establishing the accounts of that baleful ferpent to the fatisfaction of naturalifts.

The author proceeded upon his peregrinations through a multiplicity of dangers and hardships; and gives a defcription of places in the back-fettlements of America which have hitherto been very imperfectly explored.

Miscellaneous Remarks on "The Enquiry into the Evidence against Mary Queen of Scots*" 8vo. IS. Robinfon.

NO part of modern history has been more strictly inveftigated than that which relates to the correfpondence between Mary queen of Scots and the earl of Bothwell. But, though the induftry and ingenuity of the enquirers have both been exerted to a great extent, the fubject hitherto remains. involved in extreme uncertainty. The author of thefe Remarks fets out with obferving, that it may not be improper, in the entrance, to remove a popular error, common to the friends and to the enemies of queen Mary. The intercourfe between her and the earl of Bothwell was ill-fated, and, in its confequences, difaftrous, but, with refpect to her, it was innocent. When, therefore, the champions of her honour speak of that intercourfe, they ought to combat with weapons of proof, and not with the " telum imbelle fine ictu” of old Priam.'

That writers who engage in this, or in any other fimilar controverfy, fhould combat with weapons of proof, is doubtlefs a juft obfervation; but we fee no reason why such conduct fhould be rendered more neceffary by the circumftance, which the author has mentioned; and by affirming Mary's innocence, previous to any argument in its fupport, he not only prejudges the enquiry, but, would establish a propofition plainly contradicted by the general tenor of his remarks.

In the firft fection he refutes, in a fatisfactory manner, the idea of the author of the Enquiry, who, upon authority apparently erroneous, had efpou fed the opinion, that Bothwell, at the time of his marriage with Mary, could not have been under fixty years of age.

The fecond fection relates to what the author of the Enquiry has advanced, refpecting the alledged fraud of with*See Critical Review, vol. xxiii. p. 401. 178400

Vol. LVIII. Aug. 1784.

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