GENERAL VIEW OF THE BRITISH COLONIES IN NORTH AMERICA.

As this war may be termed a native of America, and the principal scenes of it were acted on that continent, we shall, for the information of the reader, sketch out the situation of the then British colonies as they bordered on each other, and extended along the sea coast, from the gulf of St. Lawrence as far south as the country of Florida. We shall enumerate the Indian nations that lie scattered about their confines, and delineate the manner in which the French hemmed them in by a surprising line of fortifications. Should we comprehend Hudson’s Bay, with the adjacent countries, and the banks of Newfoundland, in this geographical detail, we might affirm that Great Britain at that time possessed a territory along the sea-coast, extending seventeen hundred miles in a direct line, from the sixtieth to the thirty-first degree of northern latitude; but as these two countries were not concerned in this dispute, we shall advance from the northward to the southern side of the gulf of St. Lawrence; and beginning with Acadia or Nova Scotia, describe our settlements as they lie in a southerly direction, as far as the gulf of Florida. This great tract of country, stretching fifteen degrees of latitude, is washed on the east by the Atlantic Ocean; the southern boundary is Spanish Florida; but to the westward the limits are uncertain, some affirming that the jurisdiction of the colonies penetrates through the whole continent, as far as the South Sea; while others, with more moderation, think they are naturally bounded by the river Illinois that runs into the Mississippi, and in a manner connects that river with the chain of lakes known by the names of Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, the three first communicating with each other, and the last discharging itself into the river St. Lawrence, which, running by Montreal and Quebec, issues into the bay of the same denomination, forming the northern boundary of Nova Scotia. The French, who had no legal claim to any lands on the south side of this river, nevertheless, with an insolence of ambition peculiar to themselves, not only extended their forts from the source of the St. Lawrence, through an immense tract of that country, as far as the Mississippi, which disembogues itself into the gulf of Florida; but also, by a series of unparalleled encroachments, endeavoured to contract the English colonies within such narrow limits as would have cut off almost one half of their possessions. As we have already given a geographical description of Nova Scotia, and mentioned the particulars of the new settlement of Halifax, we shall now only observe, that it is surrounded on three sides by the sea, the gulf, and river of St. Lawrence; that its original boundary to the west was the river Pentagoet; but it is now contracted within the river St. Croix, because the crown of Great Britain did, in the year one thousand six hundred and sixty-three, grant to the duke of York the territory of Sagadahack, stretching from St. Croix to the river of this name; which was in the sequel, by an express charter from the crown, annexed to the province of Massachusett’s Bay, one of the four governments of New England. This country, situated next to Nova Scotia, lies between the forty-first and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, extending near three hundred miles in length, and about two hundred in breadth, if we bound it by those tracts which the French possessed: no part of the settlements of this country, however, stretches above sixty miles from the sea. The summer is here intensely hot, and the winter proportionably severe; nevertheless, the climate is healthy, and the sky generally serene. The soil is not favourable to any of the European kinds of grain; but produces great plenty of maize, which the people bake into bread, and brew into beer, though their favourite drink is made of molasses hopped, and impregnated with the tops of the spruce-fir, which is a native of this country. The ground raises good flax and tolerable hemp. Here are great herds of black cattle, some of them very large in size, a vast number of excellent hogs, a breed of small horses, graceful, swift, and hardy; and large flocks of sheep, whose wool, though not so fine as that of England, is manufactured with great success.

New England is composed of the four provinces known by the names of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It is bounded on the south by New York, extending northerly on both sides of the river Hudson, about two hundred miles into the country possessed by the Indians of the Five Nations, whom the French distinguish by the name of the Irroquois; but in breadth this province does not exceed fifty miles, though it comprehends Long Island, lying to the southward of Connecticut. The capital, which derives from the province the name of New York, is situated on an excellent harbour in the island of Manahatton, extending fourteen miles in length, and five in breadth, at the mouth of the noble river Hudson, which is navigable for above two hundred miles. At the distance of one hundred and fifty miles from New York, stands the town of Albany, upon the same river. In this place all the treaties and other transactions were negotiated between the English and the Irroquois, a confederacy of five Indian nations, who, by their union, courage, and military skill, had reduced a great number of other Indian tribes, and subdued a territory more extensive than the whole kingdom of France. They were about fourscore years ago able to bring ten thousand warriors into the field; but now their number is so greatly diminished by wars, epidemical diseases, and the use of spirituous liquors, that they cannot raise above fifteen hundred men, even though they have admitted into their confederacy the nation of the Tuscaroras, whom the English drove from the confines of Carolina. The Mohawk Indians inhabit the country advanced from Albany. The northern extremities of New Hampshire and New York are divided by the lakes Champlain and Sacrament, between which the French had raised the fort of Crown Point.

Contiguous to New York, and lying along the coast, in a southerly direction, is the small province of New Jersey, bounded on the west by the river Delaware, which divides it from Pennsylvania, extending about one hundred and fifty miles in length, but in breadth not more than one third of that extent. The climate, soil, and produce of these two provinces, as well as of Pennsylvania, are similar. They yield great quantities of grain, sheep, horses, hogs, and horned cattle; all kinds of poultry and game in great abundance; vegetables of every sort in perfection, and excellent fruit, particularly peaches and melons. Their vast forests abound with oak, ash, beech, chesnut, cedar, walnut-tree, cypress, hickory, sassafras, and pine; but the timber is not counted so fit for shipping as that of New England and Nova Scotia. These provinces produce great quantities of flax and hemp. New York affords mines of iron, and very rich copper ore is found in New Jersey.

Pennsylvania, lying to the southward of New York and New Jersey, is bounded on the other side by Maryland, stretching two hundred and fifty miles in length, two hundred in breadth, and having no communication with the sea, except by the mouth of the river Delaware. This province was originally settled by Quakers, under the auspices of the celebrated William Penn, whose descendants are still proprietaries of the country. Philadelphia, the capital, stands on a tongue of land at the confluence of the two navigable rivers, the Delaware and Sculkel, disposed in the form of a regular oblong, and designed by the original plan to extend from the one to the other. The streets, which are broad, spacious, and uniform, cross each other at right angles, leaving proper spaces for churches, markets, and other public edifices. The houses are neatly built of brick, the quays spacious and magnificent, the warehouses large and numerous, and the docks commodious and well contrived for ship building. Pennsylvania is understood to extend as far northerly as the banks of the lake Erie, where the French erected a fort. They also raised another at some distance to the southward of the Riviere-au-Beuf, and made other encroachments on this colony.

Adjoining to part of Pennsylvania, on the sea-coast, lies the province of Maryland, a tract of land situated along the bay of Chesapeak, in length about one hundred and forty miles, and nearly of the same breadth, bounded on the north by Pennsylvania, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and by the river Potowmack on the south. This country was first planted with Roman catholics by lord Baltimore, to whom Charles II. granted it by patent. In the sequel, however, people of all religions were admitted into this settlement, and indulged with liberty of conscience, and at present the reigning religion is that of the English church. The climate is very sultry in summer, and not very salubrious. The soil is fruitful, and produces a great quantity of tobacca, which the people cultivate as their staple commodity. The seat of government is established at Annapolis, a small town beautifully situated on the river Patuxent.

Tracing the sea-coast still southerly, the next settlement is Virginia, watered on the north by the river Potowmack, which is the boundary between this and the colony last described, having the bay of Chesapeak to the east, bounded on the south by Carolina, and extending westward without any prescribed limits, though the plantations have reached no farther than the great Allegany mountains; so that the province, as now possessed, stretches in length above two hundred and forty miles, and in breadth not above two hundred, lying between the fifty-fifth and fortieth degrees of latitude. In sailing to Virginia, navigators steer through a strait formed by two points, called the Capes, into the bay of Chesapeak, a large inlet that runs three hundred miles into the country from south to north, covered from the Atlantic Ocean by the eastern side of Maryland, and a small portion of Virginia on the same peninsula. This noble bay is about eighteen miles broad for a considerable space, and seven at its narrowest part, yielding generally nine fathoms depth of water; on both sides it receives many navigable rivers, those on the Virginia side being known by the names of James River, York River, the Rappahannock, and Potowmack. This country, especially towards the sea, lies very low and swampy, and the soil is extremely fertile. The air and weather are variable, the heats of summer excessive, the frosts of winter sudden, and intensely cold; so that, upon the whole, the climate is neither very agreeable nor healthy, the people being particularly subject to agues and pleuritic disorders. The province abounds with vast forests of timber; the plains are covered with a surprising luxuriancy of vegetables, flowers, and flowering shrubs, diffusing the most delicious fragrance. The ground yields plenty of corn, and every sort of fruit in great abundance and perfection. Horned cattle and hogs have here multiplied to admiration, since they were first imported from Europe. The animals, natives of this and the neighbouring countries, are deer, panthers or tigers, bears, wolves, foxes, squirrels, racoons, and creatures called opossums, with an infinite variety of beautiful birds, and a diversity of serpents, among which the rattlesnake is the most remarkable.

Virginia is bounded to the south by the two Carolinas, situated between the forty-sixth and thirty-first degrees of latitude; the length amounting to upwards of four hundred miles, and the breadth extending near three hundred, as far as the Indian nations called the Catawbas, the Creeks, and Cherokees. The country of Carolina is divided into two governments, of which the most northern is the most inconsiderable. The climate in both is the same, as well as the soil: the first is warm, though not unhealthy; the last extremely fertile, yielding every thing in plenty which is produced in Virginia, besides abundance of excellent oranges, and some commodities which are not found to the northward. North Carolina, though not so opulent, is more populous than the southern part. The colonists of North Carolina carry on a considerable traffic in tar, pitch, turpentine, staves, shingles, lumber, corn, peas, pork, and beef; tobacco, deer skins, indigo, wheat, rice, bee’s-wax, tallow, bacon, and hog’s-lard, cotton, and squared timber; live cattle, with the skins of beaver, racoon, fox, minx, wild-cat, and otter. South Carolina is much better cultivated; the people are more civilized, and the commerce more important. The capital of this province, called Charles Town, is finely situated at the confluence of two navigable rivers, having the advantage of a commodious harbour. Their trade, exclusive of the articles we have already mentioned as common to this government and that of North Carolina, consists of two chief staple commodities, rice and indigo, which they cultivate with great success; and they have likewise made some progress in the culture of silk.

The most southern of all our settlements on this coast is Georgia, extending about sixty miles from north to South, along the sea-shore; but widening in the inland parts to above one hundred and fifty, and stretching almost three hundred from the sea to the Apalachian mountains. This country differs very little from that of South Carolina, with which it borders; yet the summer is here more hot, and the soil not so fertile. Savannah, the capital, stands commodiously for trade, about ten miles from the sea, on a river of the same name, navigable with large boats two hundred miles farther up to the second town called Augusta, a place that flourishes by the Indian trade of skins, which the inhabitants carry on with their neighbours the Creeks, the Chickesaws, and the Cherokees, who are the most numerous and powerful tribes in America. Georgia is bounded on the south by the river Attamaha, at no great distance from the Spanish fort of St. Augustine.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760