vourable opinion of the native good fenfe of thefe unhappy people, and fhew the cruelty of treating them in fo base, so treach

erous a manner.

"I one day stopped the Stung Serpent, who was paffing along, without taking notice of any one. He was brother to the Great Sun, and Chief of the Warriors of the Natchez. I accordingingly called to him, and faid, We were formerly friends, are we no longer fo?' He answered, Noco; that is, I cannot tell. I replied, You used to come to my houfe; at prefent you pafs by. Have you forgot the way; or is my houfe difagreeable 6 to you! ?As for me, my heart is always the fame, both towards you, and all my friends. I am not capable of changing; why then are you changed?'

"He took fome time to anfwer, and feemed to be embarraffed by what I faid to him. He never went to the Fort, but when fent for by the Commandant, who put me upon founding him; in order to discover whether his people ftill retained any grudge,

"He at length broke filence, and told me,' He was ashamed to have been fo long without feeing me; but I imagined, faid he, that you were displeased at our nation; because among all the French who were in the war, you were the only one that fell upon us.' You are in the wrong, said I, to think fo. M. de Biainville being our War-chief, we are bound to obey him; in like manner as you, tho' a Sun, are obliged to kill, or caufe to be killed, whomfoever your brother, the Great Sun, orders to be put to death. Many other Frenchmen befides me, fought an opportunity to attack your countrymen, in obedience to the orders of M. de Biainville; and feveral other Frenchmen fell upon the nearest hut, < one of whom was killed by the first shot which the Natchez 'fired.'

"He then faid, I did not approve, as you know, the war < our people made upon the French, to avenge the death of their relation, fecing I made them carry the Pipe of Peace to the • French. This you well know, as you first smoked in the pipe yourself. Have the French two hearts, a good one today, and to-morrow a bad one? As for my brother and me, we have but one heart, and one word. Tell me then, if thou art, as thou fayeft, my true friend, what thou thinkest of all this, and fhut thy mouth to every thing else. We know not what to think of the French, who, after having begun the war, granted a peace, and offered it of themfelves; and

• then,

then, at the time we were quiet, believing ourselves to be at peace, people come to kill us, without faying a word.

Why, continued he, with an air of difpleasure, did the French come into our country? We did not go to seek them: they asked for land of us, because their country was too little for all the men that were in it. We told them, they might take land where they pleased, there was enough for them and for us; that it was good the fame fun fhould enlighten us both, and that we fhould walk as friends in the fame path; and that we would give them of our provisions, affist them to build, and to labour in their fields. We have done fo; is not this true? What occafion then had we for Frenchmen? Before they came, did we not live better than we do, feeing we deprive ourselves of a part of our corn, our game, and fish, to give a part to them? In what refpect then, had we occafion for them? Was it for their guns? The bows and arrows which we ufed, were fufficient to make us live well. Was it for their white, blue, and red blankets? We can do well enough with buffalo fkins, which are warmer; our women wrought feather-blankets for the winter, and mulberrymantles for the fummer; which, indeed, were not fo beautiful, but our women were more laborious, and lefs vain, than they are now. In fine, before the arrival of the French, we lived like men who can be fatisfied with what they have; whereas at this day we are like flaves, who are not suffered to do as they please.'

A people who could think and reafon in this manner, were too obnoxious to Frenchmen and French Governors. The latter, therefore, took every occafion to opprefs them, and, in the end, finally extirpated them, in the year 1730; not, however, before they had nobly formed, and in part executed, a scheme for a general malacre of their infolent and tyrannical Oppreffors. Our Author gives us part of a speech made by one of their old Chiefs, in a council held on that important occafion.

"We have a long time been fenfible, that the neighbourhood of the French is a greater prejudice than benefit to us: we, who are old men, fee this; the young fee it not. The wares of the French yield pleasure to the youth; but, in effect, to what purpofe is all this, but to debauch the young women, and taint the blood of the nation, and make them vain and idle? The young men are in the fame cafe; and the married must work themselves to death, to maintain their families, and please their children. Before the French came amongst us, we were men, content with what we had, and that was fufficient: we walked with boldness every road, because we were then our own masters:

Gg 4

but

1

but now we go groping, afraid of meeting thorns; we walk like flaves, which we fhall foon be, fince the French already treat us as if we were fuch. When they are fufficiently ftrong, they will no longer diffemble. For the leaft fault of our young people, they will tie them to a poft, and whip them, as they do their black flaves. Have they not already done fo to one of our young men; and is not death preferable to flavery?”

"Here he paufed a while, and after taking breath, proceeded thus:

"What wait we for? Shall we fuffer the French to multiply, till we are no longer in a condition to oppofe their efforts? What will the other nations fay of us, who pafs for the most ingenious of all the Red-men? They will then fay, we have lefs understanding than other people. Why then wait we any longer? Let us fet ourselves at liberty, and fhew we are really men, who can be fatisfied with what we have.".

The chief then proceeds to lay down the particulars of his defign; a plot formed with all the art, and carried on with all that precaution, which would have done honour to Roman or Grecian ftory; but which, like many other great defigns, mifcarried by the fatal influence of a woman, who found means to penetrate the fecret, and then betrayed it.

In the fecond book, we have an account of the country and its produce, to which are added, fome extracts from the hiftori'cal Memoirs of Louisiana, by Du Mont, relating to the cultivation and curing of tobacco; the method of extracting tar, and making pitch; and of the mines found in that country.

Book the third comprehends, what is called the natural hiftory of Louisiana; but this is too imperfect, and apparently executed with too little judgment to be of any great authority with the lovers of this study. The Author's fhort account of the Wren of this country, may ferve as a specimen of his manner of treating thefe fubjects, and as an excufe for our making no farther citations from this part of his work.

"When speaking of the king of birds, I fhall take notice of the Wren, called by the French Roitelet, (petty King) which is the fame in Louifiana as in France. The reafon of its name in French will plainly enough appear from the following history. A Magiftrate no lefs refpectable for his probity than for the rank he holds in the law, affured me, that when he was at Sables d'Olonne in Poitou, on account of an estate which he had in the neighbourhood of that city, he had the curiofity to go and fee a white eagle, which was then brought from America. Af

ter

ter he had entered the house a wren was brought, and let fly in the hall where the eagle was feeding. The wren perched upon a beam, and was no fooner perceived by the eagle, than he left off feeding, flew into a corner, and hung down his head. The little bird, on the other hand, began to chirp and appear angry, and a moment after flew upon the neck of the eagle, and pecked him with the greateft fury, the eagle all the while hanging his head in a cowardly manner between his feet. The wren, after fatisfying its animofity, returned to the beam."-This, as the News-Writers have it, merits confirmation.

In book the fourth, is given an account of the Natives of Louisiana; containing, among many trifling, fome curious and entertaining articles; but as the principal of these are to be met with in Charlevoix, Du Mont, and others, we shall here difmifs this work of M. du Pratz; which, tho' neither deferving the name of a history, nor being the moft agreeable performance as a work of entertainment, contains many things that may be of use to those who fhall hereafter vifit, or fettle, in those countries.

K-n-k

An Effay on the internal Use of the Thorn-Apple, Henbane and Monkshood; which are fhewn to be fafe and efficacious Remedies in the Cure of many Disorders. By Anthony Störck, M. D. Aulic Counsellor and chief Physician to her moft facred Majefty the Emprefs-Queen, and Phyfician to the Pazmarian Hofpital of Vienna. Tranflated from the original Latin, printed at Vienna 1762. 8vo. 1s. Becket.

WE

E have not been deceived in our repeated* prognostics of Dr. Storck's extending his medical inveftigations to other poisonous plants in Germany, after his fuccefs there with the common Hemlock. His next effay, according to their order in this piece, is on the Stramonium foetidum, or Thorn-apple, which, he confeffes, all ancient and modern Writers affirm, to caufe madness, to destroy our ideas and memory, and to occafion convulfions. Yet, like a ftaunch Lover of experiments, the Doctor confidering, whether it might not reftore mad folks to their fenfes, because it deprived perfons in fanity of them; very honestly, as in the trial of Hemlock, began with taking one grain and a half of its extract. He might poffibly be prompted to this whimfical, tho' not wholly incurious, fuppofition, by what has been faid here of tobacco's making those wha are well fick, and the fick well; fuppofing the fame thing to be

Review, vol. XXV, p 349, 350. vol. XXVII. p. 396, 397.

faid

faid of it in Germany. The cafes in which he gave it are but five; which, he admits, are too few to establish much: and, on recounting their events very briefly, they seem to cstablish nearly as much against this poifon as for it.

The first case was that of a girl, twelve years old, who had been difordered in her mind for two months, answering confufedly and inarticulately to every queftion. She took half a grain of the extract fourteen days, without any alteration; but in three weeks became less fullen, answered more pertinently; and in two months time, when the dofe was increased to one grain and a half daily, fhe began to reafon well, faid her prayers diftinctly, gradually recovering her understanding; though we are not told how gradually. The fecond Patient was a woman of forty, troubled with an obftinate vertigo, accompanied with degree of madnefs, as the tranflation tells us. a grain morning and evening for feven days; and from the She took half eighth to the twenty-eighth, daily three grains. The vertigo feems to have been but little abated by it; but as her answers became more pertinent, her madnefs is fuppofed to be cured. She continued five months in the hospital, (her vertigo growing ftronger) at the end of which fhe died of a true apoplexy. This it is certain the extract did not prevent, and not quite fo certain it might not caufe, or conduce to it. The third Patient, under a true epilepfy, with violent convulfions, and frequent madnefs, took from one grain to three, for thirteen days; fpeaking more confiftently, and recovering his flesh, before he left the hospital. In the beginning of the fourth week, however, he had an epileptic fit, but without lofs of ftrength or fenfe, and returned to the pills, taking many of them, out of the hofpital with him; and promifing to return, if he found the leaft diforder: but hearing no more of him, the Doctor fuppofes him cured. In the fourth Patient, of nine years old, who was frequently and ftrongly convulfed, the Doctor candidly acknowleges, one grain a day heightned the convulfions; notwithstanding which, the fame dofe was repeated, but with the fame confequence. It was then intermitted for fome days and refumed again, but with the fame bad effect: after which other medicines were employed; but it is not faid to what purpose. The fifth and last Patient was almoft cured; but as there were no more pills to be procured in the winter feafon, Dr. Storck obferves, it broke off the experiment. He had taken, however, from one grain and a half to four, five and fix grains full feventy days; and, when they were all spent, he refused to take any other medicine, which, it feems, the Doctor thought neceffary. We cannot, therefore, reasonably fuppofe this above three quarters of a cure: tho' it proves, that the continuance of this extract of the Thorn

apple,