vour to get as great an infight into all these as poffible, yet we never obferved any thing contrary to the moft perfect friendship and confidence which they feemed to repofe in us. I may add, that their intercourse with us was not only kind but affectionate, Their houfes were fquare, and built with large beams, the roofs being no higher than the furface of the ground, for the doors to which they make ufe of a circular hole, juft large enough for their bodies to pass through. The floors of thefe huts are perfectly fmooth and clean, with a fquare hole two feet deep in the centre, in which they make their fire, and round which they are continually warming themselves, on account of the great cold. Such habitations alfo fecure them, when not employed out of doors, from. the wind and noxious animals. The men however do not wear any covering, except the cold is intenfe, when indeed they put upon their shoulders the fkins of fea-wolves, otters, deer, or other animals: many of them alfo have round their heads fweet-fmelling herbs. They likewife wear their hair either dishevelled over their fhoulders, or otherwife in caf tanna. In the flaps of their ears they have rings like thofe at the end of a mufket. They bind their loins and legs quite down to the ankles, very closely with ftrips of hide or thread. They paint their face, and greater part of their body, regularly either with a black or blue colour. Their arms are covered with circles of fmall points in the fame manner that common people in Spain often paint fhips and anchors. The women cover the tops of their heads with an ornament like the creft of a helmet, and wear their hair in two treffes, in which they stick many fweet-fmelling herbs. They also use the fame rings in their caps (which are of bone) as the men are before defcribed to do, and cover their bodies with the fame skins, befides which they more decently wear an apron of the fame kind, about a foot wide, with fome threads formed into a fringe. They likewife bind their legs in the fame manner with the men. The underlip of those women is fwelled out into three fafcias, or rifings, two of which iffue from the corners of the mouth to the lowest part of the beard, and the third from the highest point, and middle of that point to the lower, like the others, leaving between each a space of clear flesh, which is much larger in the young than in the older women, whofe faces are generally covered with punctures, fo as to be totally dif figured. On their necks they wear vari ous fruits, inftead of Beads; fome of thefe ornaments also consist of the bones of animals, or fhells from the fea-coaft. This tribe of Indians is governed by a ruler, who directs where they shall go both to hunt and fifl for what the community stands in need of. We alfo obferved that one of thefe Indians always examined carefully the fea-fhore, when we went to our fhips on the clofe of twilight, the occasion of C 3 which which probably was to take care that all their people fhould return fafe to their habitations about that time. It fhould feem that the authority of this ruler is confined to a particular village of thefe habitations, together with fuch a diftrict of country as may be fuppofed to belong to the inhabitants of fuch a community, who fometimes are at war with other villages, against whom they appeared to ask our affiftance, making us figns for that purpofe. There are however many other villages which are friendly to each other, if not to thefe Indians; for on our first arrival more than 300 came down in different parties, with their women and children, who were ot indeed permitted to enter the village of our Indians. Whilft this fort of intercourfe continued between us, we obferved an infant who could fcarce ly be a year old, footing arrows from a bow proportioned to his fize and ftrength, and who hit one's hand at two or three yards distance, if it was held up for a mark. We never obferved that thefe Indians had any idols, or made facrifices but as we found out that they had a plurality of wives, or women, at leaft, we inferred, with good reafon, that they were perfect athiests. Upon the death of one of thefe Indians they raifed a fort of funeral cry, and afterwards burned the body within the houfe of their ruler; but from this we could not pronounce they were idolators, because the cry of lamentation might proceed from affliction, and the body might have been burnt, that the corpfe fhould not be ex pofed to wild beafts; or perhaps this might have been done to avoid the ftench of the deceased, when putrefaction might commence. We were not able to understand one of their regulations, as they permitted our people to enter all their houfes, except that of their ruler; and yet when we had broken through this etiquette, we could not obferve any thing different between the palace, and the other hats. It was impoffible for us to underftand their language, for which reafon we had no intercourse but by figns, and therefore both parties often continued in a total ig norance of each other's meaning: we obferved, however that they pronounced our words with great eafe. Their arms are chiefly arrows pointed with flint, and fome of them with copper or iron, which we understood were procured from the N. and one of them was thus marked C. Thefe arrows are carried in quivers of wood or bone, and hang from their wrist or neck. But what they chiefly value is iron, and particularly knives or hoops of old barrels; they alfo readily barter for bugles; whilst they rejected both provifions or any article of drefs. They pretended however that they fometimes approved the former, in order to procure our esteem; but foon after they had accepted any fort of meat, we observed that they fet it afide, as of no value. At laft indeed they took kindly to our bifcuits, and really eat them. Amongst thefe Indians there was one who had more familiar inter intercourfe with us than all the reft, fitting down with us in fight of his countrymen. They ufed tobacco, which they fmoaked in fmall wooden pipes in form of a trumpet, and procured from little gardens where they had planted it." They chiefly hunt deer, cibulos, fea-wolves, and otters, nor did we obferve that they purfued any others. The only birds we met with on this part of the coaft were daws, hawks, very small paroquets, ducks, and gulls; there were alfo fome parrots with red feet, bills, and breasts, like lories both in their heads and flight. The fish on that coaft are chiefly fardines, perjerey, and cod; of which they only bring home as much as will fatisfy the wants of the day. We tried to find if they had ever seen other strangers, or hips, than our own, but though we took great pains to inform ourselves on this head, we never could perfectly comprehend what they faid; upon the whole we conceived that we were the only foreigners who had ever visited that part of the coaft. We likewife endeavoured to know from them whether they had any mines or precious ftones; but in this we were likewife dif. appointed. What we faw of the country leaves us no doubt of its fertility, and that it is capable of producing all the plants of Europe. In most of the gullies of the hills there are rills of clear and cool water, the fides of which are covered with herbs (as in the meadows of Europe) of both agree able verdure and fmell. Amongst thefe were Caftilian rofes, fmallage, lilies, plantain, thistles, camomile, and many others. We likewife found ftrawberries, rafbberies, blackberries, sweet onions, and potatoes, all of which grew in confiderable abundance, and particularly near the rills. Amongst other plants we obferved one which much refembled parsley (though not in its fmell), which the Indians bruifed and ate, after mixing it with onions. The hills were covered with very large, high and ftrait pines, amongft which I obferved fome of 120 feet high, and 4 in diame ter towards the bottom. All these pines are proper for mafts and fhip-building. The outline of the port is reprefented in Chart the 6th, which was drawn by D. Bruno Heceta, D. Juan Fr. de la Bodega, and myfelf. Though the port is there reprefented as open, yet it is to be understood that the harbour is well fheltered from the S.W. W. and N.W. as alfo from the N. N.E. and E. *. [This difcovery was made by the schooner on the 9th of June.] In the W. part there is a hill 50 fathoms high, joining to the continent on the N. fide, where there is another rifing of 20, both of which afford protection not only from the winds, but the attack of an enemy. At the entrance of the port is a fmall ifland of confiderable height, without a fingle plant upon it; and on the fides of the coaft are high rocks, which are very convenient for difembarking; goods *Thefe charts, which amount to nine, have never been tranfmitted to Eng land. alfo may be shipped fo near the hill, that a ladder may be used from the land to the veffel; and near the fand are many small rocks, which fecure the fhip at anchor from the S. E. and S.W. We compleated our watering very early from the number of rills which emptied themfelves into the harbour; we were likewife as foon fupplied with wood. We paid great attention to the tides, and found them to be as regular as in Europe. We made repcated obfervations with regard to the latitude of this harbour, and found it was exactly 41 degrees and 7 minutes N. fuppofed the longitude to be 19 degrees and 4 minutes W. of S. Blas. We had thus thoroughly inveftigated every thing which relates to this harbour, except the courfe of a river which came from the S.W. and which appeared whilft we were at the top of the hill. We took therefore the boat on the 18th, and found that the mouth was wider than is neceffary for the discharge of the water, which is loft in the fands on each fide, fo that we could not even enter it except at full tide. However we left our boat, and proceeded a league into the country, whilft the river continued of the fame width, viz. 20 feet, and about five deep. 1 On the banks of this river were larger timber trees than we had before feen, and we conceived that in land-floods the whole plain (which was more than a quarter of a league broad) must be frequently covered with water, as there were many places where it continued to flagnate. We gave this river the name of Pigeons, because at our first landing we faw large flocks of thefe, and other birds, fome of which had pleasing notes. On the fides of the mountains we found the fame plants and fruits, as in the more immediate neighbourhood of Trinity-harbour. An Account of John Law and of the Miffipi Scheme, projected by bim in 1717-from the private Life of Lewis 15th, translated from the French, by J. O, Juftamond, F. R. S. the fon of a goldfmith of Edinburgh. Never did man poffefs, in fo a perfect a degree, the power of calculating and combining; and he cultivated thefe talents, by following the bent of his inclination. He applied himself to every thing that related to banks, lotteries, and to the trading companies of London; he studied the means of fupporting them, of animating the hopes and confidence of the public, by keeping up their expectations, or by increafing their zeal. OHN Law was a Scotchman, He penetrated into the inmoft fecrets of these matters; and increased his stock of knowledge ftill more, from the new company, eftablished by Harley Earl of Oxford, for paying off the national debt. Having afterwards obtained the employment of fecretary to fome agent of the refident's in Holland, he made himfelf acquainted upon the spot with the famous bank of Amfterdam with its capital, its poduce, its refources; with the demands individuals had upon it; with its variations, its intereft; with the mode mode of lowering or raifing its ftock, in order to withdraw the capital, that it might be diftributed and circulated; with the order that bank observed in its accounts and in its offices; and even with its expenditures and its form of administration. By dint of reflecting upon the information he had acquired, and of combining fo many different ideas, he formed a fyftem which was admirable for its order, and the concatenation of the various operations which constituted it; a fyftem founded at least as much upon the knowledge of the human heart, as upon the science of numbers; but from which good faith, equity, and humanity, were totally banished, to make way for perfidy, injustice, violence, and cruelty. And indeed the author of it was himself an unprincipled wretch, bound by no ties of morality or religion. Having flain or murdered a man, he was oblig. ed to fly from Great Britain; he brought away with him another man's wife, with whom he lived many years as if he had been his His avidity was infatiable, and it was to gratify this paffion, that all his extenfive combinations were made to concur. In that exhausted state to which the war had reduced all the European powers, he forefaw that they would neceffarily endeavour to reestablish their finances, and he conceived greater hopes of fucceeding than ever, by the allurement of his fyftem, which was calculated to feduce any power that would not fcruple to prefer the fpedieft method of exonerating itself, to that which was most honeft. The object of his plan, own. therefore, was neither trade nor the facility of levying taxes without diminishing them, nor the retrenchment of expences, nor the cultivation of the foil, nor the confumption of provifions, nor even the circulation of the fpecie. He had built up his fyftem with a view that a fovereign fhould pay his debts, not only without encroaching upon his profufion or his luxury, but also by attracting to himself all the gold and filver of his fubjects; and fuch was to be the illufion, that the subjects fhould give it up voluntarily; nay more, fhould be eager to bring it in, fhould infift upon its being received, fhould confider it as a favour to be preferred; and that when they were rouzed from this dream, if they should find themfelves bereft of their property, they should not be able to lay the blame on any thing but their own avidity. A project of a most alarming nature to the human mind, and whichevery other man, except this daring genius, would have rejected as a chimera, if it had fuggefted itself to him! This fyftem confifted of a bank, the real capital of which was to be the revenues of the state, and the accruing capital, fome unknown kind of commerce. This benefit being calculated to keep pace with the imagination in its increase, was to be a wonderful spur to those gamefters who wished to partake of it, by means of fhares, which were to be made out fucceffively, in proportion to the eagerness of the parties. Thefe fhares, in fact, which were at firft few in number, could not fail of rifing to an enormous price on account of their scarcity, and |