Long has the world been lur'd by Newton's schemes His systems strange, and philosophie dreams, And long has fashion bid all ranks proclaim, In terms of loud applause his hallow'd name, From the Astronomer whose piercing eyes, Beholds events dark-pictur'd in the skies, Young bratling planets in their cradles sleeping, And stars as yet unhatch'd in egg-shells peeping, To Show-man wondrous, who, by feats so rare, With magic lantern makes the children stare, Thus when Redress from Stamp-act's dreary night, O'er fair Columbia shed its morning light, The cheering ray thro' all her regions ran, And grateful incense warm'd the heart of man, While each bright city from Bostonia's shore, To southern Charlestown join'd in glad uproar, Gilt with their streaming fires the shades of even, And bade the cannon tell the news to heaven; Fair Hebron felt inspir'd, and from a stump Her sons, for lack of cannon, fir'd a pump.† But hence Newtonians vain no longer dare With heaven-taught truths your sophistry compare, Nor with your brittle arguments essay To prove that Matter's legs, and runs away; Why Moodust groans in such convulsive frolics, And why Hull's physic cures all sorts of cholics,

† Vide Peters' history of Connecticut—a performance so celebrated for a close adherence to Truth, that many people have conjectured the holy divine pumped the old lady out of her well by the assistance of a Hebron Cannon.

† A place celebrated for a kind of home-made earthquakes, which will probably at some future day make a conspicuous figure in the natural history of this country.

Relinquish then the unvailing strife,

For while I've matter left, or breath, or life,
I'll prove, should logic fail, by force of fist,
That Plenum Vacuums every where exist;
Then will you gladly own yourselves mistaken,
And give your tenets up to save your bacon.
So when proud Pharaoh, loth with Jews to part,
Froze his dark soul, and steel'd his harden'd heart,
Though frogs, and lice around the monster pour'd,
Fleas bit his back, and thunder o'er him roar'd,
Though murrain, boils, and blains attack'd his hide,
Yet nought could start him 'till his children died.

ECHO.....NO. VII.

From the National Gazette.

"FARTHER AND CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ON THE INDIAN WAR, BY H. H. BRACKENRIDGE, OF PITTSBURG.

"I

I CAN easily excuse those, who, from motives of humanity,

call in question the justness of our cause in the war against the Indians. But could I make my observations theirs with respect to the ruthful disposition of a savage, that is not soothed continually by good offices, or kept down by fear; could I give my knowledge, recollection, and impression of the accumulated instances of homicide committed by the tribes with whom we are at war, the humane would be more humane, for their feelings would bẹ more awake, not in favour of these people, but of the persons butchered by them in cold blood, or dragged to that pole seen by the soldiers under General HARMAR, by the Miami village, where the ground was beat like a pavement by the miserable victims moving round the stake to avoid the still pursuing tortures, which the circle of black coals, at a distance from the piles burned, shewed whence they brought their brands and heated gun-barrels to afflict the object. All this, though there have been but three instances since the conclusion of the war with Britain, where an Indian has been hurt on our part; one on the Susquehanna, and two on the Ohio: with respect to one of which instances, that of M'Guire and Brady, it is a doubt whether they were hostile or peaceable.

"I consider men who are unacquainted with the savages, like young women who have read romances, and have as improper an idea of the Indian character in the one case, as the female mind has of real life in the other. The philosopher, weary of

the vices of refined life, thinks to find perfect virtue in the simplicity of the unimproved state. He sees green fields and meadows in the customs and virtues of the savages. It is experience only can relieve from this calenture of the intellect. All that is good and great in man results from education; and an uncivilized Indian is but a little way removed from a beast, who, when incensed, can only tear and devour, but the savage applies the ingenuity of man to torture and inflict anguish.

"A great dependance seems to be placed on Cornplanter and his party. I know Cornplanter, and Big-Tree, and Half-Town; they are good, as Indians, and are well disposed to us, because they can be of little or no account on the other side. Brandt treats them with contempt, and adheres to the British. Instead of bringing them down at a great expense, and presenting them in Philadelphia, and appropriating 800 dollars for their maintenance and vestment, were things put upon a right footing, and Presqu'isle garrisoned, we should have no more occasion for Cornplanter, or Big-Tree, or Half-Town, than they would have for us; and if we gave them goods, they would give us furs.

"I have seen a certain blind Sam, so called, because blind of an eye, taken down to this city, passed for a warrior, dining at clubs, and have heard of him presented at a ball, on his way down: the favoured ladies looking upon themselves as beatified in receiving the salute of a king. When he returned, with a laced waistcoat, the vulgar Indians that before thought him one of them, laughed immoderately at the farce.

"As these are desultory observations, I remark and conclude that some think me rather rash in presuming that the king of Britain has given any countenance, directly or indirectly to the Indian depredations or armaments. I should be sorry to do injustice to any power, and it was with great difficulty that I admitted the idea, but I have been convinced of it, and can have no doubt, because that government could not but have heard of the hostilities, and by one simple word of the commandant of Detroit to M'Kee and Brandt, we should have had a perfect peace. But M'Kee and Brandt, when messengers were sent to call the Indians to the

treaties at Muskingum and at Miami, advised them not to go: witness—————I shall suppress my authorities. It may perhaps injure these men in their future trade with the Indians or connections at Detroit. Good God! that an island where I drew my first breath, where a Milton and a Hume have lived, where a Howard has sacrificed to humanity-there can be those who can aid, at least not disarm, what may be in their power, the savage of his axe, battered on the skulls of their species, in the cottage or the fields of the settlements adjoining their province-they could do this by the surrender of the posts, for at that moment I proclaim peace to to the westward, and ensure safety.

"It may be thought that I am inhumane in my sentiments towards the savages; It is a mistake; I am inhumane to no man or men; but in order to be humane, let me have it in my power. Let myself first be safe, and then I can shew what humanity dictates. The question is, Whether we shall submit ourselves to the savages or they to us? I say, let us conquer because we cannot depend upon them, for the weaker ever distrusts the mightier, and the unenlightened man, the sensible; but when we shall have it in our power, let us dispense treaties on principles of reciprocity (to use the term of the diplomatists) and let them know that we are not about to purchase a treaty, but to make one and preserve it. These principles, founded in nature and truth, will strike the mind of the savage, that we ask no more than he ought to give, or that we give more than he has a right to ask. By the immortal gods! (a Roman oath, but sworn with christian devotion,) if this principle could be made the basis of our negotiations, we should govern not only these people, but all the world with whom we have to do. When I say govern, I mean command of them all, that is our right on principles of the laws of nations or of nature. But in our affairs with the western Indians, we have for a series of years pursued a sickly tampering system of half peace, half war, from which nothing could result but half success. A bold and decisive act of effective hostility at the conclusion of the war with Britain would have composed these Indians, and preserved in existence the countless numbers that have fallen victims to torture or death on the bourne of the wilderness. It was