labor, and spent their time in hunting, fishing, shooting, and warlike exercises. They imposed all the drudgery upon their women, who gathered and brought home their wood, planted, dressed, and gathered their corn. When they travelled the women carried their children, packs, and provisions. The women submitted patiently to such treatment: this ungenerous usage of their husbands they repaid with smiles and good

humor.

The clothing of the natives was the skins of wild beasts. The men threw a mantle of skins over them, and wore a small flap, which were termed Indian breeches. The women were much more modest: they wore a coat of skins, girt about their loins, which reached down to their hams, which they never put off in company. If the husband chose to dispose of his wife's beaver petticoat, she could not be persuaded to part with it until he had provided another of some sort. In the winter their blanket of skins, which hung loose in summer, was tied or wrapped more closely about them. The old men in the severe seasons also wore a sort of trousers, made of skins and fastened to their girdles; and on their feet they wore moccasons made of moose leather; and their chiefs, or sachems, wore on their heads a cap decorated with feathers.

Their houses, or wigwams, were at best but miserable cells. They were constructed generally like arbors, or small young trees bent and twisted together, and so curiously covered with mats or bark that they were tolerably dry and warm. The natives made their fires in the centre of the house; and there was an opening at the top, which emitted the smoke. For the convenience of wood and water these huts were commonly erected in groves, near some river, brook, or living spring; when either failed, the family removed to another place.

They lived in a poor, low manner; their food was coarse and simple, without any kind of seasoning; they had neither spice, salt, or bread. Their food was principally the entrails

of moose, deer, bears, and all kinds of wild beasts and fowls : of fish and snakes they were extremely fond. They had strong stomachs, and nothing came amiss. They had no set meals, but, like other wild creatures, ate when they were hungry and could find any thing to satisfy the cravings of nature. They had but little food from the earth except what it spontaneously produced. Indian corn, beans, and squashes were the only eatables for which the natives of New England labored.

Their household furniture was of but small value. Their beds were composed of mats or skins. They had neither chairs nor stools; but commonly sat upon the ground, with their elbows upon their knees. A few wooden and stone vessels and instruments served all the purposes of domestic life. Their knife was a sharp stone, shell, or kind of reed, which they sharpened in such a manner as to cut their hair, make their bows and arrows, &c. They made their axes of stone, which they shaped somewhat similar to our axes, but with the difference of theirs being made with a neck instead of an eye, and fastened with a with like a blacksmith's chisel.

The manner of the courtship and marriage of the natives manifested the impurity of their morals. When a young Indian wished for marriage, he presented the girl with whom he was enamoured with bracelets, belts, and chains of wampum. If she received his presents they cohabited together for a time upon trial; if they pleased each other they were joined in marriage; but if, after a few weeks, they were not suited, the man, leaving his presents, quitted the girl and sought another mistress, and she another lover. In this manner they courted until two met who were agreeable to each other.

The natives of New England, although they consisted of a great number of different nations and clans, appear to have spoken radically the same language: from Piscataqua to Connecticut it was so nearly the same that the different tribes could converse tolerably together. The Mohegan, or Pequot,

language was essentially that of all the Indians in New England. The word Mohegan is a corruption of Muhhekaneew in the singular, or of Muhhekaneek in the plural number. The Penobscots bordering on Nova Scotia, the Indians of St. Francis in Canada, the Delawares in Pennsylvania, the Shawanese on the Ohio, and the Chippewaus at the westward of Lake Huron, all now speak the same radical language.

WASHINGTON'S EXPEDITION IN 1753;

AND

DEFEAT OF GENERAL BRADDOCK, BY THE INDIANS, IN 1755.

IN 1753 the French and Indians began to make inroads on our western frontiers along the Ohio. Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, was very desirous to get a letter of remonstrance to their commander-in-chief. He had applied to several young gentlemen of his acquaintance; but they were all so deficient in courage that they could not be prevailed on for love or money to venture out among the savages. Our beloved Washington, happening to hear of it, instantly waited on his excellency and offered his services, but not without being terribly afraid lest his want of a beard should go against him. However, the governor was so charmed with his modesty and manly air that he never asked him a syllable about his age; but, after thanking him for "a noble youth," and insisting on his taking a glass of wine with him, slipped a commission into his hand. The next day, accompanied by an interpreter and a couple of servants, he set out on his expedition, which was, from start to pole, as disagreeable and dangerous as any thing Hercules himself could have wished. Soaking rains, chilling blasts, roaring floods, pathless woods, and mountains clad in snows opposed his course, but opposed in vain. The glorious ambition to serve his country imparted an animation to his nerves which rendered him superior to all difficulties.

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Returning homewards he was waylaid and shot at by a French Indian; and though the copper-colored ruffian was not fifteen steps distant when he fired at him, yet not even so much as the smell of lead passed on the clothes of our young hero. On his return to Virginia it was found that he had executed his negotiations, both with the French and Indians, with such fidelity and judgment that he received the heartiest thanks of the governor and council for the very important services he had done his country.

He was now, in the twentieth year of his age, appointed major and adjutant general of the Virginia forces. Soon after this, the Indians continuing their encroachments, orders were given by the English government for the colonies to arm and unite in one confederacy. Virginia took the lead, and raised a regiment of four hundred men, at the head of which she placed her darling Washington.

With this handful of brave fellows Colonel Washington, not yet twenty-three years of age, boldly pushed out into the Indian country, and there, for a considerable time, Hanniballike, maintained the war against three times the number of French and Indians. At the Red Stones he came up with a strong party of the enemy, whom he engaged and effectually defeated, after having killed and taken thirty-one men. From his prisoners he obtained undoubted intelligence that the French forces on the Ohio consisted of upwards of a thousand regulars and many hundreds of Indians. But, notwithstanding this disheartening advice, he still pressed on undauntedly against the enemy, and at a place called the Little Meadows built a fort, which he called Fort Necessity. Here he waited, hourly and anxiously looking for succors from New York and Pennsylvania; but he looked in vain. Nobody came to his assistance. Not long after this, his small force, now reduced to three hundred men, were attacked by an army of eleven hundred French and Indians. Never did the true Virginian valor shine more gloriously than on this trying occasion.