French; and the same with respect to their children. A formulary and species of canon was composed for the regulation and guidance of the missionaries on this subject."

We cannot enter at any length into the history of the Protestant missions, which, in proportion as the English extended their territory, and hemmed in the French, gradually succeeded those of the Jesuits and the Recollets. It gives us pain to observe, that the zeal of our countrymen was not accompanied with richer fruits than such as were gathered by their predecessors in that arduous field. If, indeed, we may believe the earliest of our missionaries, their failure was owing, in no small degree, to the deceptions practised by the Romanists. One of the converts assured a Protestant minister, that the Jesuits taught his countrymen that the Lord Jesus Christ was of the French nation; that his mother, the Virgin Mary, was a French lady; that it was the English who murdered him; and that all who would recommend themselves unto his favour, must avenge his quarrel upon the English as far as they could.

A greater obstacle to success in spreading the Gospel, was created by the English themselves, who soon brought their motives into discredit, by employing the tomahawks of one tribe against another. The morals, too, of the soldiers and traders, strongly prepossessed the natives against their religion. Nor were the measures of the local government at all times consistent either with the spirit of Christianity, or with sound political wisdom. An Indian chief very indignantly asked a missionary, why he pressed his countrymen to become Christians, seeing that the Christians were so much worse than they? The Christians, said he, will lie, steal, and drink worse than the Indians. It was they who first taught the Indians to be drunk; and they stole from one another to that degree, that their rulers were obliged to hang them for it; but that was not sufficient to deter others from it: and he supposed that if the Indians were to become Christians, they would then be as bad as these.

The speech of Red Jacket to the representative of the United States, in the year 1820, touches on another topic which is closely connected with the success of missionary exertion. "Another thing recommended to us, said he, has created great confusion amongst us, and is making us a quarrelsome and divided people; and that is the introduction of preachers into our nation. These black robes contrive to get consent of some of the Indians to preach among us; and whenever this is the case, confusion and disorder are sure to follow, and the encroachment of the whites upon our land is

the invariable consequence. The governor must not think hard of me for speaking thus of the preachers, I have ob served their progress, and when I look back to see what has taken place of old, I perceive that wherever they came among the Indians, they were forerunners of their dispersion; that they introduced the white people on their lands, by whom they were robbed and plundered of their property; and that the Indians were sure to dwindle and decrease, and be driven back, in proportion to the number of preachers that came among them."

When Mr. Mahew asked permission of a sachem to preach to his Indians, the chief replied," Go, and teach the English to be good first." A distrust relative to the character and motives of the whites, pervades every portion of the Indian population. Two missionaries were furnished by the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, and sent among the Delawere tribes with a letter containing much pious compliment and friendly promise. When the two Christians arrived at their destination, the chiefs assembled, and said they would take the subject into consideration; that in the mean time they might instruct the women, but were not to speak to the men. Fourteen days were spent in council, after which the leading individuals made known the result of their deliberation, which was as follows. They very courteously dismissed the two strangers, with an answer to those by whom they had been sent; assuring us, says Dr. Boudinot, that they owed us "great acknowledgments for the favours we had done them. They rejoiced exceedingly at our happiness in thus being favoured by the Great Spirit, and felt very grateful that we had condescended to remember our red brethren in the wilderness; but they could not help recollecting, that we had a people among us, who, because they differed from us in colour, we had made slaves of, causing them to suffer great hardships, and lead miserable lives. Nor they could not see any reason if a people being black, entitled us to deal with them, why a red colour would not equally justify the same treatment. They therefore had determined to wait and see whether all the black people among us were made thus happy and joyful, before they could put confidence in our promises; for they thought a people who had suffered so much and so long by our means, should be entitled to our first attention; that therefore they had sent back the two missionaries, with many thanks, promising, that when they saw the black people among us restored to freedom and happiness, they would gladly receive our missionaries.-This, adds the Doctor, is what in

any other case would be called close reasoning, and is too mortifying a fact to make farther observations upon."

The contamination produced by the fur-traders, who have demoralized one-half of the Indian tribes, by means of ardent spirits and European vices, renders conversion more difficult, and less effectual than ever. Various methods have been suggested to the government of Washington for reclaiming the inhabitants of the western forests; but every effort will prove abortive, while the off-scourings of their population are allowed to carry among them the example of every wickedness, and the means of gratifying their worst passions. The red children, we fear, will add, at no distant period, another example of the melancholy fact, that the colonization of a polished people, in a land inhabited by savages, leads not to the improvement of the latter, but to their final extirpation. The President of the United States has proposed the division and appropriation of the land which they yet possess, hoping that they may be induced to practice agriculture, and remain in fixed habitations. But the Indian cannot be confined either to place or occupation. He will retreat into the woods farther and farther, till he reach the rocky mountains, seeing his numbers diminish and his resources gradually decrease, until at length the remains of the copper-coloured race will be sought for in vain, or mingling with the kindred tribes on the western declivity of the Andes.

Mr. Halkett's book contains a good deal of interesting matter, and at the same time opens up many sources of valuable information in regard to the early history of North America. On this account, chiefly, we venture to recommend it to the curious reader.

ART. V. A brief Narrative of an unsuccessful Attempt to reach Repulse Bay, through Sir Thomas Rowe's "Welcome," in His Majesty's ship Griper, in the year 1824. By Captain G. F. Lyon, R. N. With a Chart and Engravings. 8vo. 199 pp. 10s. 6d. Murray. 1825.

EVERY body who could read must have felt pain in taking up the Newspaper which announced Captain Lyon's disappointment; and this regret, we think, will be increased a hundred-fold after the perusal of this short and unpretending narrative, which has since been offered to the public. In a voyage barren of all incident, except that of the storms which

occasioned the ship's return, we did not think it possible that our attention could have been arrested as forcibly as we have found it to be; for it is scarcely exaggerated praise to add, that we do not recollect in the whole circle of literature, a passage of profounder interest, than the few simple pages in which Captain Lyon recounts the perils which he twice so providentially escaped.

Our readers will doubtless bear in mind, that from the discoveries in Captain Parry's second voyage, there appeared a very strong probability, that a western portion of the Polar Sea would be found at no great distance from Repulse Bay, across Melville Peninsula; that is at about three days journey, according to the Esquimaux calculation. To determine this question, and then to examine the eastern part of the North coast of North America, from the western shore of Melville Peninsula, to the point at which Captain Franklin's journey terminated, was the service in which the Griper was employed. For these purposes, Captain Lyon was instructed to winter in Repulse Bay, and in the spring of 1825, to proceed across the Peninsula.:

The Griper was a gun brig of 180 tons burden, strengthened and raised for the particular service to which she was destined. Her crew, inclusive of officers, amounted to 41 persons. She was plentifully stored with all necessaries, and for the land-journey various instruments and sledges were provided; and two boats to be covered with water-proof canvass, were carried out in frame. The Snap surveying vessel was to accompany Captain Lyon, until he entered the ice, and then, having put her cargo on board the Griper, was to make for Newfoundland.

On the 10th of June 1824, Captain Lyon was towed from Deptford; on the following day Professor Barlow came on board at Greenhithe to adjust his plate for the correction of the compasses from the effects of local attraction. The Griper on entering the salt water, drew 16 feet 1 inch abaft, and 15 feet 10 inches forward: and from her great depth and sharpness abreast, she was found to pitch very deeply. The first berg, a piece of ice about 70 feet, was seen on the 1st of August, and by the sudden smoothness and change of temperature in the water, (32° while the air was 31°,) Captain Parry confirmed his former observation, that an approach to the ice from an open sea, may always be ascertained by the variation of the thermometer. On the 4th of August the Snap parted company, having previously delivered all her stores, under weather so adverse, that during the whole time that the boats were passing between the two vessels, which were

*

entirely hidden from each other by the density of the fog, they were guided backwards and forwards through loose ice by the sound of bells.*

"When our stores were all on board, we found our narrow decks completely crowded by them. The gangways, forecastle, and abaft the mizen-mast, were filled with casks, hawsers, whale-lines, and stream-cables, while on our straightened lower deck we were obliged to place casks and other stores, in every part but that allotted to the ship's company's mess tables; and even my cabin had a quantity of things stowed away in it. The launch was filled high above her gunwales with various articles, and our chains and waste were lumbered with spars, spare plank, sledges, wheels, &c. Our draught of water aft was now sixteen feet one inch, and forward fifteen feet ten inches.

"This account of our crowded state may lead to a supposition, that I carried out a larger portion of stores than was absolutely requisite; but I may in a few words explain my reasons for having endeavoured to carry all the supplies which the Snap brought across the Atlantic for us.

"Our stay in the Polar regions must of necessity have been above one year and a half, even supposing that my journey to Point Turnagain had been performed with the greatest expedition; but had I encountered difficulties, and experienced those delays on my return to the Griper, which are unavoidable in this desolate country, I' might not have reached her until she was again frozen in, and two years and a half would then have been her shortest stay; in which case it was indispensably requisite that provisions for that time should be carried out, and these it was that now so much incommoded us. On the Griper's former expedition with Captain Parry, she was only able to carry one year's provisions, and was supplied from the Hecla at the expiration of that time; and on her recent voyage with Captain Clavering, up a wide and open sea, she only carried an eighteen month's supply, as it was not intended she should winter in the country.

"The difference in the quantity of stores may therefore account, in some degree, for the ship's being so hampered; and I have trespassed thus far on the patience of my readers, in consequence of an

"Although the Fogs in the Polar regions are so frequently mentioned in the course of the recent Narratives which have been published, I believe they are generally understood as resembling our English fogs; which is not, in fact, the case, In the northern seas these vapours rarely rise to above a hundred feet from the sea, and a sky of most provoking brilliancy is frequently seen over head. The view from the deck is bounded to about a hundred yards, and such is the rapid formation of the icicles on the rigging, that it is actually possible, when the temperature is low, to see them grow beneath the eye. Yet chilling as this may appear, the sudden clearing of the fog no sooner permits the sun to break forth in its full vigour, than the ship and rigging glisten in the most brilliant manner, as if they were of glass, and a rapid thaw quickly restores every thing to its original colour." P. 43.

VOL. XXIII. JANUARY 1825.

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