PORTUGUESE AMERICA,

PRINTING has been long practised in the Portuguese settlements; but, I believe, the press has been kept almost solely for the use of the government. If any literary productions were ever issued from it, I am unacquainted with them.

As there is an intercourse between the United States and Brazil, we may hope to obtain, at no distant period, the history of printing in this part of South America.

Brazil is an extensive, opulent, and rich country, divided, according to geographers, into about twenty provinces, which contain diamond, gold and silver mines. The number of inhabitants is estimated at 2,500,000, whereof one half are the descendants of the original possessors of the country; about 700,000 are slaves imported from Africa, 10,000 of whom are employed in the diamond mines; and, the remainder are native and European Portuguese. St. Salvador, and St. Sebastian, or Rio Janeiro, are the principal cities; the latter, sir George Staunton informs us, contains 43,000 inhabitants-40,000

of these are slaves and people of color--the royal court of Brazil is held at this place,* now become the residence of the king and royal family, who lately fled from Portugal on the invasion of that country by the emperor of the French. Thus one king of a civilized people, has been introduced on this continent. How soon one, or more, may be placed at · the head of the government, or governments, of the Spanish provinces in South and in North America, is as yet unknown; but the time does not appear to be far remote, when such an event may take place.

* In 1792, according to sir George Staunton's account, there were but two booksellers in Rio Janeiro, and they sold ⚫ books on the subjects of divinity and medicine only.

ENGLISH AMERICA.

NOW THE

UNITED STATES.

Introduction of the Art.

THE early part of the history of the United States, is not, like that of most other nations, blended with fable. Many of the first European settlers of this country were men of letters; they made records of events as they passed, and they, from the first, adopted effectual methods to transmit the knowledge of them to their posterity. The rise and progress of English America, therefore, from its colonization to the period at which it took a name and place among sovereign and independent nations, may be traced with the clearness and certainty of authentic history.

That art, which is the preserver of all arts, is worthy of the attention of the learned and the curious. An account of the first printing executed in the English colonies of America, combines many

of the important transactions of the settlement, as well as many incidents interesting in the revolutions of nations; and, exhibits the pious and charitable efforts of our ancestors, in Newengland; to translate the sacred Books into a language, which at this short distance of time is, probably, not understood by an individual of the human race, and for the use of a nation* which is now extinct. Such is the fluctuation of human affairs!

The particulars respecting the Printing and Printers of this country, it is presumed, will gratify professional men; and, a general history of this nature will certainly preserve many important facts which, in a few years, would be irrecoverably lost.

Among the first settlers of Newengland were many pious as well as learned men. They emigrated from a country where the press had more license than in other parts of Europe, and they were acquainted with the usefulness of it. As soon as they had made those provisions that were necessary for their existence in this land, which was then a rude wilderness, their next objects were, the establishment of schools, and a printing press; the latter of which was not tolerated, till many years afterward, by the elder colony of Virginia.

The founders of the colony of Massachusettsf consisted of but a small number of persons, who

*The aborigines of the country.

The reader will perceive that I am here speaking of Massachusetts proper, not of the colony of Plymouth, where a settlement was made in the year 1620. That colony has, however, long since been incorporated into that of Massachusetts.

arrived at Salem in 1628. A few more joined them in 1629; and governor Winthrop, with the addition of fifteen hundred settlers, arrived in 1630. These last landed at the place since called Charlestown, opposite to Boston, where they pitched their tents, and built a few huts for shelter. In 1631, they began to settle Cambridge, four miles from the place where they landed. They also began a settlement on the identical spot where Boston now stands. In 1638, they built an academy at Cambridge, which in process of time was increased to a college; and, the same year, they opened a printing house in that place. In January, 1639, Printing was first performed in that part of North America, which extends from the gulph of Mexico to the frozen ocean.

For this press our country is chiefly indebted to the rev. mr. Glover, a nonconformist minister, who possessed a considerable estate, and had left his native country with a determination to settle among his friends, who had emigrated to Massachusetts; because in this wilderness, he could freely enjoy, with them, those opinions which were not countenanced by the government and a majority of the people in England.

Very little more than the name of this Father of the American Press is known among us. So far as my researches have extended, I can only find that his name has been barely mentioned by two re spectable journalists, who were among the first settlers that emigrated here. This was, probably,

* Governor Winthrop, and captain Johnson.