VALE OF SUSSEX.

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who engage in the arduous enterprize of breaking into new and uncultivated wilds. They are often known to wear out their lives in toil and labour, for the benefit of those who come after them, and who reap, comparatively speaking, where they have not sown. The flourishing state of the city, however, since it took its rise, in a few log and bark huts, about forty years ago, and the rising prosperity of numerous settlements, though confined principally as yet to the borders of rivers and well watered vallies, speak volumes in favour of the active, persevering, successful industry, and enterprizing spirit of the loyalists and people of the province, and of the advantageous fostering care of the British Government.

I left Saint John the following morning after my arrival in the city, for the Vale of Sussex, which presents to the eye some beautifully picturesque views, on the river Kennebeckasis, as its tributary streams bend their course through some good and well cultivated farms. This settlement, in its first formation, was much indebted to the active energy and independent public spirit of the late Hon. George Leonard, who lived in a spacious and handsome residence in this pleasant valley. Near to the village is a fine spring, from which salt of an

excellent quality is made, for the table and culinary purposes; and if the water were analyzed, it would no doubt be found to possess some valuable medicinal qualities. This vale holds out every encouragement to increased industry and improvement, as it possesses many advantages in point of situation and fertility of soil, and has the great road of communication passing through it to the adjoining province of Nova Scotia.

The Indians formerly resorted to it, in considerable numbers, it was their rendezvous in starting or returning from the chace; but since the woods have been driven of animals, and the soil occupied or taken up by the settlers, they are seldom now seen on the track, in their wandering state of existence.

In the hope of benefiting and improving their condition, an establishment was formed in the valley, by the New England Company, soon after the first settlement of the province, called, The Academy for instructing and civilizing the Indians.' It was liberally placed, by the incorporated Society in London, under the management and direction of a board of commissioners, that consisted of the leading authorities of the province. Little or no advantage, however, accrued to the Indians from

those plans which were adopted at the Academy for meliorating their state, and, in the terms of the charter, To propagate and advance the Christian and Protestant religion among them.' For a series of years every attempt failed, in the

way of effecting any permanent change, or producing any substantial good among this degraded portion of our fellow-men; for after the Company had incurred a heavy expense, they reverted to their migratory habits of life, and again fell under the influence of the Roman Catholic priests. Nor has the more recent plan of the Establishment, as recommended to the Society at home, by the Board of Comissioners in the province, been attended with much better success towards civilizing and raising the Indians in the moral scale of being. The principle that was adopted, of apprenticing their children, at an early age, to different settlers, I found was not generally approved by the Indians themselves, nor has the plan proved beneficial to their morals. Under these circumstances, the New England Company have resolved upon breaking up the establishment, and would seek, in the application of their funds, for further good than they have heretofore met with among our Red brethren of the wilderness.

It is not by such means, however, nor any similar forced process that has been acted upon, nor any means that compel them to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water," in a menial capacity, that a just expectation can be raised of any conversion in their state. Their naturally high and independent spirit must be consulted in the attempt to do them good; and this is best done by encouraging them, on all favourable occasions, to become settlers on their own lands, or lands which in common justice should be assigned to them, as the original proprietors of the soil. An Indian sees acutely all the relative stations in society, and feels keenly the contempt with which he is often treated by white people, on account of the colour of his skin. A short time ago, Saccho Beeson, a chief of the Passamaquoddy tribe, accompanied a deputation of Indians to a convention in the state of Maine, for the purpose of asserting their right of property in the land where they were located. At the house of accommodation they were put into a back room for the night, with a small bit of a candle, where the boots of a considerable number of persons, who had arrived for the meeting, were left. The next day this spirited chief complained to the assembly, how badly Indians

were accommodated; and being asked to state what he had to complain of, said, 'Boots too much, and light too little.'

The Indians, not being encouraged to intermarry or mix with white people on terms of equality, have receded as a distinct people, or ▾ have been driven before those who have carried commerce, with civilization, far into the wilderness and lands of their forefathers. And it cannot be otherwise than affecting to an honest and feeling mind, to recollect the way in which Europeans first obtained a footing in their country, and the possession of their patrimony. "You look sorry, brother,' said an American general to an Indian chief, who was on a visit to the city of New York, 'Is there any thing to distress you?' 'I'll tell you, brother,' said he, 'I have been looking at your beautiful city, the great water, your fine country, and see how happy you all are. But then, I could not help thinking, that this fine country, and this great water, were once our's. Our ancestors lived here; they enjoyed it as their own, in peace; it was the gift of the Great Spirit to them and their children. At last the white people came here in a great canoe; they asked only to let them tie it to a tree, lest the water should carry it away: we