in this of a compleat and perpetual pacification. He clofes his work with a general recapitulation of the capital points which are therein treated, in order to fhew the confiftency of his own fyftem, and the propriety of the title he has affumed, of being the friend of the human race.

Such is the analysis of this fingular and extraordinary undertaking, which has met with a very general reception, and, indeed, very juftly deserved it. The Author has fhewn great ftrength of mind, very extenfive knowlege, much penetration, and a degree of acutenefs in reafoning which is very rarely met with. He apologizes for the inequality of his ftile, which is, in-deed, very difcernable, but at the fame time very pardonable, as in fome places it is plainly owing to his subject, and in others to his attending more to things than to words. His fagacity is feldom, his humanity never, to be queftioned. The vivacity of his manner is extremely agreeable, and there is a rapidity in his difcourfe, which not only carries, but even hurries, his Reader through matters abftrufe and perplexed, and forces him to underftand, or to think he understands them, as well as the Writer himself. In a word, confidering it as a literary performance, it is inferior to few; many notions have the charms of novelty, there are several which must be confefled of great utility, and not a few have an air of extravagance which will render them pleafing, at least, if not perfuafive.

Hiftoire de la Louifiane, contenant la découverte de ce vafte pays; fa defcription géographique; un voyage dans les terres; les mœurs, coutumes, religion des naturels, avec leurs origines; deux voyages dans le Nord dû Nouveau Mexique, dont un jufqu'à la Mer du Sud, ornée de deux cartes de quarante planches en tailledouce. Par M. le Page du Pratz. That is,

The Hiftory of Louifiana, containing the difcovery of that vaft country, a geographical defcription of it, a journey through the inner parts, the manners, cuftoms, and religion of the natives, with a conjecture as to their origin; two journies thro' the North of New Mexico, one of which reached to the South Sea, adorned with two charts and forty copper plates. By Mr. le Page du Pratz. In three volumes twelves. Paris, printed for Debuze, fenior, the widow Delaquette, and Lambert, 1758.

According to the account this Author gives us of himself, he went over to Louifiana A. D. 1718, a middle-aged man, after having spent fome years in the army. He remained there till 1734, which allowed him time enough to exercise his abilities Mufficiently, in minutely enquiring into the different subjects

which he chofe to examine. He appears from his writings to be a very fenfible, and, which is of far more importance to his Readers, a very worthy man. He difplays, on many occafions, a fincere love of truth and of his country, a ftrong defire of acquiring knowlege, and an equal inclination to communicate it. It is true, however, that his talents, as a Writer, are not very extraordinary; he wants method, his ftile is unequal and diffuse; he omits many things that he might have mentioned, and he alfo inferts not a few that might as well have been omitted. But his fincerity and good fenfe overbalance these imperfections, and give a juft value to his performance, the contents of which we fhall fuccinctly explain.

He attributes the difcovery of the Mimiffippi, which he all along calls the River of St. Lewis, to Father Hennepin, a Recollect, whom he maintains to be the first Frenchmen that trod upon its banks, and who is fuppofed to have conferred this name upon it, because it was difcovered in the reign of Lewis XIV. Upon the fame principle he beftowed the name of Louifiana upon the countries lying on the eaft and weft fides of this great

Other Writers, indeed, affign this honour to the Sieur Cavalier de la Salle, but our Author affures us, his fole merit confifted in erecting the first fort which was built therein. He was in procefs of time affaffinated by his own people, which fhews, that confummate prudence, and a great fund of moderation, are at least as neceflary as an active and bold fpirit, in fuch as undertake enterprizes of this kind. Mr. d'Yberville, a very gallant fea-officer, fixed afterwards a fettlement on the river of Mobile, and if he had lived longer, would have done much greater things. The King, notwithstanding, made a grant of this country to Mr. Crozat, and the Regent Duke of Orleans, upon his furrender, made a ceffion of it to the company of the Indies. This fell out in the year 1718, and gave a pretence at leaft to those extravagant projects which occafioned then fo great a noife, and the effects of which are, perhaps, ftill felt, not in France only, but in feveral other countries in Europe. It paffed, at that time, for a terreftrial Paradife; we fhall fee from our author's defcription what face it wears now, and how far it merited thofe praifes.

According to him this great country is bounded on the South by the Gulph of Mexico, on the Eait by Carolina and part of Canada, on the Weft by New Mexico, on the North by the lakes of Canada, and poffibly by Hudson's Bay, for the limits on that fide are far from being precisely known. Louifiana is confiderably bigger than the whole realm of France, watered by large and beautiful rivers, bleffed with a very temperate climate, and happy in a foil fuited to every kind of culture. The great river Miffiffippi

Miffiffippi affords infinite conveniences for commerce, being joined in its courfe by the rivers Ohio and Ouabache, which defcending from the interior parts of Canada, maintain a correfpondence between Quebec and New Orleans, the capitals of Canada and Louifiana. New Orleans, however, is but in a very feeble condition, built on a tract of land liable to be overflowed by the river of St. Louis, continually covered with mud, and where there is not a ftone to be found. The buildings are of brick and wood, and not answerable in any degree to the excellent country in which it is feated. Cattle, fowl, and fifh abound in a furprizing manner, and the Author affures us, that by kindling a fire under a large tree in the woods, and throwing a little brimstone upon it, the smell of it will bring down as many stock doves out of the tree (being fuffocated with the vapour) as would serve several families. He gives many other inftances of a like nature, and which are indifputable proofs of this amazing plenty; which, however, may poffibly be one reafon why the French colonies have had fo little fuccefs: nothing being more difficult than to raise a spirit of industry in a country where there are fuch prodigious funds both for fubfiftence and amusement.

Our Author, ftruck with the defire of viewing the lefs known parts of this extenfive region, fet out on a long peregrination through the lands of the Natchez, (a great nation, whom the French have now extirpated) having no other equipage than his dog and his gun, and accompanied by ten favages. His travels are curious and agreeable; the rather because, though they contain many things new, there are none of them incredible; no furprizing adventures; no wonderful stories of his own prudence or prowefs: but all plain and natural accounts of what he faw, birds, beavers, mines, quarries, lakes, forefts, &c. The converfations he had with the natives are equally inftructive and pleasant, and have an air of fimple fincerity, that hinder them from appearing either trivial or tedious.

The people of this great country are far from being all alike. In general, however, this Writer reprefents them as moderately tall, ftrong, active, habituated from their youth to carry burthens, to fhoot, to travel great journeys, and to make hunting and war the business of their lives. He defcribes at large the religion of the Natchez, who, though they believed and worhipped only one God, had a great veneration for the fun, and practifed a great variety of fuperftitions. He proceeds to speak of their wars, their cuftoms, and manner of living, their feafts, their marriages, their temples, their diverfions, their fepulchres, &c. from whence he concludes, and we give it only as his con

clufion,

clufion, that they came originally from our continent, and were in all probability defcended from the Phoenicians.

One of the most curious things in this work, is the detail of the travels of a Savage (thatis the French polite term for an Indian) of the nation of the Yagaus. This man, whose name was Moncacht-ape, appears to have been a person of quick parts, and folid understanding, and undertook his journies with as fenfible views of increafing his knowlege, by feeing the world, as any European. He first travelled through the countries on the Eait fide of the river Miffiffippi, to go to Quebec, having a paffionate defire to behold the flux and reflux of the fea; but he went; however, no farther than the Fall of Niagara. His next excurfion was on the Weft fide, when, if we may give credit to this relation, he penetrated to the South Sea, and happened to be amongst an Indian nation, inhabiting the coaft, when the Japanese made a defcent, with an intent to cut a fort of wood which makes a very rich dye. As they made ufe of fire-arms, the Indians were exceedingly alarmed. However, Moncachtape having advised them to form an ambufcade, eleven of these invaders were flain, which afforded him an opportunity of viewing their bodies, their drefs, and their arms, of all which we have a very diftinct defcription. We have alfo the travels of the Chevalier Bourgmont along the river Miffauri, which are rather curious than inftructive, except their fhewing us, that in point of natural talents, the people of America are not at all inferior to the inhabitants of Europe.

In the third volume the Author enters into a plain difinterested account of the war with the Natchez. In the year 1729, a French officer took it into his head to difpoffefs them, for his own conveniency, of one of their villages. This occafioned a general confederacy, or, as the French call it, a confpiracy of the natives against them, which they managed with the utmost addrefs, and executed with the greatest cruelty. Four or five hundred French perifhed in this affair, but reinforcements being fent from Europe, a war was commenced in form, which after feveral battles and fieges, ended in the utter extirpation of the Natchez, the most civilized and the most useful nation to the French, in Louisiana.

In refpect to the article of commerce, we are told, that France may draw from this country immenfe quantities of furs, skins of great value, timber fit for all uses, wax, falt-petre, filk, cotton, indigo, tobacco, rice, faffron, abundance of valuable drugs, woods and other materials for dyeing the richest colours, and many other commodities.

Upon

Upon the whole, the work fully juftifies all that we have faid of it at the beginning of this extract, and is fo much the more valuable, as it contains, in a very narrow compafs, all that could have been collected out of the various accounts formerly publifhed of this country; befides a multitude of curious and useful particulars, not to be met with any where else, and which may ferve to give us a juft idea, as well of the future importance, as of the prefent ftate of this colony: a thing not altogether uninterefting to ourselves, or, indeed, to any of the nations who have concerns with, or plantations in, America.

T

1

Inflitutiones Antiquaria, quibus præfidia pro Græcis Latinifque nummis & marmoribus faciliùs, intelligendis proponuntur, ac plurima ad numerorum & vocum compendia, ad chronologiam & paleographiam fpectantia accuratè explicantur. Auctore Everardo Audrichio, Scholarum Piarum Philofophia & Mathefeos, Profeffore. That is,

Antiquarian Inftitutes, in which many helps for the understanding infcriptions on Greek and Roman coins, and marbles, are propofed; in which a multitude of points relative to the con tractions in figures and words, and in refpect to chronology and paloeography, are accurately explained. By Everard Audrichius, Profeffor of Philofophy and the Mathematics. Florence, from the Imperial Prefs, 1756. 4to.

This work, calculated chiefly for the fervice of young students, and intended as an introduction to the knowlege of antiquities and the mathematics, is equally curious, ufeful, and exact. It contains a great variety of informations, highly requifite toward profecuting fuch ftudies with effect, and which nevertheless were hitherto not to be found, but by fearching through many volumes, and then neither fo clearly or concifely as here. It is, indeed, not a little ftrange, confidering how long, and how much, these branches of fcience have been in esteem, such a work fhould till this time be wanting. Poffibly fuch as with much labour, and indefatigable attention, arrived at a fuperiority in this kind of learning, were unwilling to smooth those roads to their followers, which they had paffed with fo great difficulty themfelves; or engaging in fresh purfuits, thought more of acquiring fame from new inveftigations, than of facilitating the enquiries of thofe who came after them, and to whom they might have ferved as guides, by fuch communications.

Thefe inftitutes are digefted into two parts. The first regards Chronology, treats of the different manners of dividing months, and their names amongst the antient nations, of their year, their feafts, &c. the feveral remarkable epochs or æras, their com

mencement