another a particular tree; in which he imagines the Great Beingrefides, and influences his good or ill fortune in this life.

The religious fentiments of these people, though confused, are in some respects juft. They allow that there is a good Being, and they fometimes fing to him; but not out of fear or adoration, for he is too good, they lay, to hurt them. He is called Kitch-e-mane-ts, or the Great Chief. They further fay, there is an evil Being, who is always plaguing them; they call him Whit-ti-ce. Of him they are very much in fear, and feldom eat any thing, or drink any brandy, without throwing fome into the fire for Whitti-co. If any misfortune befals them, they fing to him, imploring his mercy; and when in health and profperity do the fame, to keep him in good humour. Yet, though obfequious fometimes, at others they are angry with him, especially when in liquor; they then run out of their tents, and fire their guns in order to kill him. They frequently perfuade themselves that they fee his track in the mofs or fnow, and he is generally defcribed in the most hideous forms. They believe that both the good and the bad Being have many fervants; thofe of the former inhabiting the air, but thofe of the latter walking on the earth. They have likewife an opinion that this country was once overflowed; an opi-' nion founded on meeting with many fea fhells far inland.

They have no manner of government or fubordination. The father, or head of a family, owns no fuperior, nor obeys any commund. He gives his advice or opinion of things, but at the fame time has no author'ty to enforce obedience: the youth of his family follow his directions, but rather from filial affection or reverence, than in confequence of any duty exacted by a fuperior. When feveral tents or families meet to go to war, or to the Factories to trade, they choose a leader, but it is only voluntary obedience they pay to the leader fo chosen ; every one is at liberty to leave him when he pleases, and the notion of a commander is quite obliterated as soon as the voyage is over. MERIT ALONE

GIVES THE TITLE TO DISTINCTION; AND THE POSSESSION OF QUALITIES THAT ARE HELD IN ESTEEM IS THE ONLY METHOD

TO OBTAIN RESPECT. Thus a perfon who is an experienced hunter; one who knows the communication between the lakes and rivers; one who can make long harangues; is a conjuror; or if he has a family; such a man will not fail of being followed by feveral Indians, when they happen to be out in large parties; they likewife follow him down to trade at the fettlements; he is, however, obliged to fecure their attendance upon this occafion by promifes and rewards, as the regard paid to his abilities is of too weak a nature to command fubje&tion.-

In war a mutual resentment against their enemies forms their unio for perpetrating their revenge. Perfonal courage, patience unde hardfhips, and a knowledge of the manners and country of their ad verfaries, are the qualifications fought after in the choice of a kada They follow him, whom they have thus chofen, with fidelity, an execute his projects with alacrity; but their obedience does no proceed from any right in the leader to command, it is folel founded on his merit, on the affection of his followers, and the defire of subduing their enemies. These sentiments actuate ever breaft, and augment the union, while in more civilized nation fuch a compact is effected by a flavifh fubmiffion to military laws for as the foldier has no choice in his commander, it frequent! happens that neither his abilities nor his character are calculate to gain their efteem.

The Indian's method of dividing the time, is by numberin the nights elapfed, or to come; thus, if he be afked how lon he has been on his journey, he will answer, "fo many nights. From this nocturnal divifion, they proceed to the lunar o monthly divifion, reckoning thirteen of these in the year, all o which are expreffive of fome remarkable event of appearance that happens during that revolution of the moon.

Their method of computing numbers is rather abstruse, as the reckon chiefly by decades; as follows:-Two tens, three tens, &c Ten tens, or an hundred tens. A few units over or under, ar added or fubftra&ted. Thus, thirty-two in their tongue is ex pressed, by saying three tens and two over.

Those Indians of whom we have now been treating and of whor the Peltries are obtained, are known by the following names, vi The Ne-heth-aw-a, the Affinne-poetuc, the Fall, the Suffee, th Black-feet, the Pargan, and the Blood-Indians. These are th only Indians with which the Company trade, and confequentl the only ones whose manners, customs, &c. are known.

The laudable zeal of the Moravian clergy induced them, in th year 1752, to fend missionaries from Greenland to this country They fixed on Nefbit's harbour for their fettlement; but of th first party, fome of them were killed, and others driven away In 1764, under the protection of the British government, and ther attempt was made. The miffionaries were well received b the Efquimaux, and the miflion goes on with fuccefs.

ANIMAL S.

The animals of thefe countries are, the moofe deer, ftags, rei deer, bears, tygers, buffaloes, wolves, foxes, beavers, otter lynxes, martins, fquirrels, ermines, wild cats, and hares. Th

rein deer pass in valt herds towards the north in October, seeking the extreme cold. The male polar bears rove out at fea, on the floating ice, most of the winter, and till June; the females lie concealed in the woods, or beneath the banks of rivers, till March, when they come abroad with their twin cubs, and bend their coatfe to the fea in search of their conforts. Several are killed in their paffage; and those that are wounded show yast fury, roar hideously, and bite and throw up in the air even their own progeay. The females and the young, when not interrupted, con tinue their way to the fea. In June the males return to shore, and by Auguft are joined by their conforts, with their cubs, by that time of a confiderable, fize. The feathered kinds are, geefe, buffards, ducks, growfe, and all manner of wild fowls. Indeed multitudes of birds retire to this remote country, to Labrador and Newfoundland, from places more remotely fouth, perhaps from the Antilles; and fome even of the most delicate little fpecies. Moft of them, with numbers of aquatic fowls, are feen returning fouthward with their young broods to more favourable climates. The favages in fome refpects regulate their months by the appearance of birds; and have their goose-month, from the vernal appearance of geefe, from the fouth. All the growfe kind, ravens, cinereous, crows, titmoufe, and Lapland finch, brave the fevereft winter; and feveral of the falcons and owls feek fhelter in the woods. Of fish, there are whales, morfes, feals, cod-fifh, and a white fish, preferable to herrings; and in their rivers and fresh waters, pike, perch, carp, and trout.

All the quadrupeds of these countries are clothed with a close, foft, warm fur. In fummer there is here, as in other places, a variety in the colours of the feveral animals; when that season is over, which holds only for three months, they all affume the livery of winter, and every fort of beafts, and moft of their fowls, are of the colour of the fnow; every thing animate and inanimate is white. This is a furprifing phenomenon. But what is yet more surprising, and what is indeed one of the most striking things, that draw the most inattentive to an admiration of, the wildom and goodness of Providence, is, that the dogs and cats from Britain that have been carried into Hudson's Bay, on the approach of winter have entirely changed their appearance, and acquired a much longer, fofter, and thicker coat of hair than they had originally.

DISCOVERY AND COMMERCE.

The knowledge of these northern feas and countries was owing a project ftarted in England for the difcovery of a north-weft

E

paffage to China and the Eaft-Indies, as early as the year 1576. Since then it has been frequently dropped and as often revived, but never yet compleated; and from the late voyages of difcovery it seems probable, that no practicable paffage ever can be found. Forbisher discovered the Main of New Britain, of Terra de Labra. dor, and thofe ftreights to which he has given his name. In 1585, John Davis failed from Portsmouth, and viewed that and the more northern coafts, but he feems never to have entered the bay. Captain Hudfon made three voyages on the fame adventure, the first in 1607, the second in 1608, and his third and last in 1610. This bold and judicious navigator entered the ftreights that lead into the bay known by his name, coafted a great part of it, and penetrated to eighty degrees and a half, into the heart of the frozen zone. His ardour for the discovery not being abated by the difficulties he struggled with in this empire of winter, and world of froft and fnow, he ftayed here until the enfuing fpring, and prepared, in the beginning of 1611, to purfue his difcoveries; but his crew, who fuffered equal hardships, without the fame fpirit to fupport them, mutinied, feized upon him and feven of those who were moft faithful to him, and committed them to the fury of the icy feas in an open boat. Hudson and his companions were either fwallowed up by the waves, or gaining the inhospitable coaft, were deftroyed by the lavages; but the flip and the rest of the men returned home.

Other attempts towards a difcovery were made in 1612 and 1667; and a patent for planting the country, with a charter for a company, was obtained in the year 1670. In 1646, Captain Ellis wintered as far north as 57 degrees and a half, and Captain Chriftopher attempted farther discoveries in 1661. But befides thefe voyages, we are indebted to the Hudson's Bay Company for a journey by land; which throws much additional light on this matter, by affording what may be called demonftration, how much farther North, at least in fome parts of their voyage, thips must go, before they can pafs from one fide of America to the other. The northern Indians, who came down to the Company's factories to trade, had brought to their knowledge a river, which, on account of much copper being found near it, had obtained the name of the Copper Mine river. The Company being defirous of examining into this matter with precifior, directed Mr. Hearne, a young gentleman in their fervice, and who having been brought up for the navy, and ferved in it the war before laft, was extremely well qualified for the purpose to proceed over land, under the convoy of thofe Indians, for that river; which he had orders to furvey, if poffible, quite down to its exit into the fea; to make obfervations for fixing

the latitudes and longitudes; and to bring home maps and drawings, both of it and the countries through which he should pafs Accordingly Mr. Hearne fet out from Prince of Wales's Fort, on Churchill river, latitude 58° 47' north, and longitude 94° 7 weft from Greenwich, on the 7th of December, 1770- Mr. Hearne on the 13th of July reached the Copper Mine river, and found it all the way, even to its exit into the fea, incumbered with fhoals and falls, and emptying itself into it over a dry flat of the fhore, the tide being then out, which feemed, by the edges of the ice, to rife about twelve or fourteen feet. This rife, on account of the falls, will carry it but a very fmall way within the river's mouth, fo that the water in it has not the leaft brackish taste. Mr. Hearne is, nevertheless, fure of the place it emptied itfelf into being the fea, or a branch of it, by the quantity of whalebone and feal fkins which the Efquimaux had at their tents; and alfo by the number of seals which he faw upon the ice. The fea, at the river's mouth, was full of islands and fhoals, as far as he could fee, by the affiftance of a pocket telescope: and the ice was not then (July 17th): broke up, but thawed away only for about three quarters of a mile from the shore, and for a little way round the island and fhoals which lay off the river's mouth. But he had the most extenfive view of the fea when he was about eight miles up the river, from which station the extreme parts of it bore N. W.

by W. and N. E.

By the time Mr. Hearne had finished his furvey of the river, which was about one o'clock in the morning on the 18th, there cane on a very thick fog and drizzling rain; and as he had found the river and fea, in every refpect unlikely to be of any utility, he thought it unneceffary to wait for fair weather, to determine the latitude more exactly by observation: but by the extraordinary care he took in obferving the courfes and distances, walking from Congecathawhachaga, where he had two very good. obfervations, he thinks the latitude may be depended on within 10' at the utmost. It appears from the map which Mr. Hearne conftructed of this fingular journey, that the mouth of the Copper Mine river lies in latitude 72° N. and longitude 250 W. from Churchill river; that is, about 119° W. of Greenwich. Mr. Hearne's journey back from the Copper Mine river to Churchill, lafted till June 30th, 1772; fo that he was abfent almost a year and seven months. The unparalleled hardships he fuffered, and the effential fervice he performed, have met with. a fuitable reward from his masters. He has been feveral years governor of Prince of Wales's Fort on Churchill river, where he was taken prifoner by the French in 1782.