odd, as he exhibited his horny excres

eences.

The appearances were, in all the memorable particulars, exactly like those which I observed in the cock brought last summer, from New-Orleans, by Mr. Giraud, to New-York. In that breed, all the facts and circumstances were substantially the same as in this. The horns were loose in the comb, and had no connection with the cranium. Their size and figure, however, were somewhat changed from spurs. The health was good, and the most striking incident was the whimsical appearance.

It would appear probable from these two cases, that there is an operator in Louisiana, who is very successful in these experiments upon cocks.

On the Mongrel Races of Animals. In a Letter from Dr. Allen, of Onondago, to Dr. Mitchill. Read before the Lyceum, June 15th, 1818. DEAR SIR,

I cannot forbear to give you an account of a singular phenomenon in natural history, well knowing your attachment to every circumstance of philosophical research. Sometime in the spring, now past, a sow, the property of a Mr. Reed, within two miles of this place, was delivered of a litter of animals, the appearance of which, has excited much speculation and surprise. The litter consisted of six in number, one of which was a perfect pig in every respect excepting one of the hind feet, which instead of a hoof, terminated with three claws resembling a dog's.

The other five were perfect dogs, as to feet, tail, hair, shape, &c. to the foreshoulders which resembled a pig's; the head was short like a dog's, the eyes and nose exactly in appearance like a pig, except as I observed before, rather shorter. They resembled a pig in nothing, except the shape of the nose, the appearance of the eyes, and the shape of the foreshoulders; they were all born alive, four of them died in fffteen minutes. But the most perfect of the dogs and the pig, lived and sucked until several hours elapsing, were killed by the owner, and to all appearance would have lived to arrive at maturity. The sow was a likely young white animal, this being her first litter, and was put with a male equally well formed and handsome. About the time she went to the male, the owner had a bitch, and the yard was frequented for a number of nights, by numbers of dogs,

these were all the circumstances I now recollect attending.

I regret I was unable to dissect those animals, in order to ascertain their analogy to either class of animal in the viscera. This is a simple statement of the facts, I forbear to comment in the least, mean time I should be happy (should your avoca tions admit,) to receive your opinion on the subject, so much out of the common order of the nature of the brute creation, and on the union of two animals so dissimilar in their habits and nature. Accept, sir, the assurance of my particular regard and esteem, Your obedient servant, JAMES MEASE ALLEN, M. D. S. L. MITCHILL. M. D. Clintonville, Onondaga County, N. Y. June 6th, 1818.

Description of a Phoca Vitulina, or Common Seal of the Long-Island and NewYork Coast. By Samuel L. Mitchill. Account of a Seal or Phoca, caught at South-Amboy, near New-York, June 13, 1818.

The length was 5 feet and 6 inches, and the girth around the thorax 4 feet and 4 inches.

There were no external ears, but only orifices for admitting sounds through the air and the water, in which the creature subsisted by turns.

The animal could live more than three minutes under water, without breathing. To enable it to sustain itself in this way, the extremity of the snout was so contracted as to enable the nostrils to be accurately closed at pleasure, and thereby to exclude the liquid element.

The back was of a dusky or iron gray when out of water and dry; though much darker when immerged. Belly whitish gray, or dirty white. Both have an undulated variegation of hue, in a transverse direction. Under the chin and along the throat, the hair is rather longer, and approaches nearer to a cream colour.

Head and face roundish. Neck thick and round, though susceptible of much elongation and contraction. Whiskers stiff, thick and plaited in five or six rows.

Eyes globose, nearly black, and capable of being accurately covered by the lids. Above each eye a patch of about five bristles.

The anterior extremities about ten inches long, and capable of being employed to scratch the head and the side. They are capable of being so expanded as to answer the double purpose of feet

and fins have on each five distinct white nails, obliquely situated. Resemble the fins of the marine tortoise. The posterior extremities terminal, and webbed like the feet of a water fowl. When at rest, their soles touch each other. There are on each five nails, the middle one of which is situated on a toe-shorter than the rest. Tail flat and tapering, but not more than four inches long.

Mouth capacious, teeth small and sharp. The creature devours herrings with voracity. Two teats on the abdomen, which are retracted within the skin.

There are several varieties, such as that found in the gulf of Bothnia, in lake Baikal of Siberia, in the Caspian sea, and in the ocean, more especially the north Atlantic, and of very different sizes and colours.

The Progress of the Human Mind from Rudeness to Refinement; exemplified in an Account of the Method pursued by Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, under the Authority of the Government of the United States, to civilize certain Tribes of Savages within their Territory; drawn up by Samuel L. Mitchill, M. D. LL. D. &c. &c.

those they were resisted and compelled to retreat to their present settlements.

to destroy, in their own defence, a considerable part of the Creek nation, has been interpreted by some persons as proving the inutility of attempts to civilize savages. This conclusion is incorrect. The Cherokees have been initiated into the arts of improved life as well as the Creeks; and yet the Creeks only have engaged in hostility against the United States. There must therefore have been some other cause than the lessons they have learned from our agents. And this was probably the instigation of our secret and avowed enemies.

Until this extirminating warfare arose, the great problem of civilizing the abo rigines was believed by many to have been in a fair way of being solved, or rather that it was already solved in the United States. The subjects of this philanthropie and instructive experiment were the Creeks and Cherokees. The former of these nations of Indians came from the west of the Mississippi. There is a tradition among them, that there are in the fork of Red-River, two mounds of earth, and that at that place the Cussatubs, Cowetuhs and Chickasaws found themselves; that being distressed by wars with red-men, their forefathers crossed the Mississippi, and travelling eastward, they passed the falls of Tallapoosa above Tookaubatche, and settled below the rapids of Chatapooche. Hence they spread out to Ocmulgee, Oconee, Savannah, and down the sea coast towards Charleston, where they first saw white people. By

years by the Americans, the French, Spaniards and English. They were tempted in various ways to be concerned in the leagues and stratagems of their neighbours, who wished to get possession of their lands. They, however, generally conducted themselves with remarkable prudence, and avoided such alliances as might implicate them in depopulating wars. Accordingly, they preserved their national existence, and at the commencement of our federative government, attracted a large and early attention.

The greatness of their numbers, the value of their lands, and their contiguity to the colonies of the enterprising nations of Europe, made it necessary to have a seasonable and full explanation with them. At that time George Washington was President of the United States; and the Creeks were in an hostile mood. Congress was sitting in the city of NewYork; and the principal subject then under consideration was, whether they should be treated by forcible and warlike operations, or by gentle and pacifie means. The considerate statesmen of the United States were divided in opinion on these points. Some were in favour of the exterminating, and others of the conciliatory plan. Among the latter was Benjamin Hawkins, then a Senator in Congress from North Carolina, who dissuaded in strong terms the project of hostile operations against the Creeks. By his interference a military expedition was withheld until a negotiator could be sent

into the nation, and invite them to a peaceful parley. The man selected for this service was Marinus Willet. He was employed in preference to a clergyman whom it was originally intended to send. Willet penetrated their country, obtained a hearing, and brought with him M'Gillivray, and a deputation of the nation to New-York. Here a treaty was held, and a peace established in the year 1794.

The meditated war having thus failed, the next thing to be done was to regulate trade and intercourse between the red men and the white. For this purpose Congress passed a law directing the manner of dealing with them, delineated the boundaries, and appointed an agent to superintend the department of Indian affairs south of the river Ohio. This was during the administration of Mr. Adams. Mr. Hawkins was appointed the manager of this business. He had previously acted a distinguished part in several negotiations with the natives, and had acquired much knowledge of their situation, their wants, and the mode of doing business with them. Accepting the commission, this gentleman left the Senate, quitted polished society, and entered upon the arduous work of protecting and civilizing the Indians.

An undertaking of this sort has of late been deemed chimerical or impossible. The labours of the zealous Jesuits and the industrious Moravians had so frequently proved abortive, that few even of the well wishers of the experiment entertained much expectation of its success. The agent however was sanguine in the cause, and the government seconded his views. In the course of about ten years, he succeeded in advancing some of these people from the state of hunters to those of herdsmen, cultivators of the soil, and manufacturers; and the changes in their moral, intellectual and social disposition, have been effected without the assistance of other missionaries, and of scholastic or collegiate education. Indeed Mr. Hawkins entertained an opinion that an introduction to the mysteries of religion, and an acquaintance with the intricacies of literature, ought to follow, and not precede, an initiation into the more useful and necessary arts, such, for example, as those of procuring food and clothes.

This active reformer did not commence his undertakings by teaching his pupils the shapes and sounds of letters in the alphabet, nor the dogmas and doctrines in the catechism. He omitted these things altogether; or rather he studiously forbade their introduction. He adhered to

a rule of interdiction against all preachers of every sect, from holding converse with the Creeks, but treated members of the church with great politeness, in other respects, whenever they visited the agent at the factory; and for several years, the alarms of the natives were not excited by the discipline and lessons of schoolmasters. When Mr. H. first presented himself among the Indians, and talked to the assembled chiefs on his project of civilizing them, they replied to him in the most insulting terms, reprobated his scheme with great bitterness; and concluded by uttering sounds of the most contemptuous signification around the circle.

After their disgust and merriment had in some measure subsided, he told them in a mild and frank discourse, that he was now done with the men; but that, as he was by no means discouraged, he should quit them, and address himself to the other sex. This he soon found means to accomplish; and by soothing arts, by kind treatment, and by assuring them that he could teach them how to procure plenty of provisions and clothes with their own hands, he gained the confidence of several girls and women. To them he imparted the arts of carding, spinning and wearing; and to these they became soon attached, because petticoats, jackets and other articles of dress could thereby be easily procured.

But it was not possible to make all the females spinsters. Some for want of in clination or opportunity, and others through lack of machinery, could not practise those domestic employments. They still laboured, after the manner of Indian women; and among other occupa tions tended a little patch of maize for subsistence. Finding that sometimes, the women had a surplus of corn, the agent's next point was to teach them to exchange it for something to make petticoats, and other raiment. With this view he instructed them in the use of measures, and these he reduced to an intelligible value in money. A bushel of corn, for example, was valued at a quarter of a dollar; and where this precise coin was not at hand, the sign of it was a single white mark, called a chalk. This word thence became a nominal coin, or rate of value; and as a chalk of corn denoted a “bushel,” so a chalk of calico, tobacco, or any thing else would signify as much of either of these articles as could be bought by a quarter of a dollar, the estimated value of a bushel of corn.

While this agent was proceeding by these means to improve and enlarge the

minds of the Creeks, he was not neglect ful of the use and application of weights. He made figures to illustrate the construction of steelyards, on a piece of paper. He explained this to one woman, and after making her comprehend it, handed it to another. And by ascertaining the weight of hogs, and other things, which used always to be sold by tale, and reducing them to chalks or quarter dollars, he made his learners understand that a heavy hog was worth more than a light one; and by actually paying them in proportion to the weight, demonstrated to them the difference in value between things heretofore rated alike. This gave them great satisfaction, and made them more careful to fat their hogs. The like happened in respect to corn. This was formerly sold by the varying quantity of a basket full, till Mr. H. instructed them in the use of an established and unvarying measure, the half bushel; taught them to reduce such a measure to a certain weight by the steelyard; and then again to calculate this weight in chalks or quarter dollars.

At the same time, as much pains was taken as possible to instruct the boys and girls about the agent's house, and in his family, in the practice of the English tongue. In like manner the Indian children who lived with his negroes, were taught to speak our tongue. But all this was accomplished by rote, and without the sight or mention of a book.

Progressing in these ways, the spinning and weaving of cotton increased rapidly. There were in 1805, twenty looms in the lower, and ten among the upper towns. Of the former, twelve were wrought by Indians, and eight of them were coustructed by Indians. Of the latter, three were worked by natives, and three were built by them. Three of the looms in the upper towns were kept agoing by white women for a toll which was fixed at every fifth yard. The women on the Flint river had then applied for fifty additional spinning wheels. And such was the power of example prompted by interest, that some old men and boys learned to spin and seemed to take pleasure in the exercise. In the upper towns there was at that time a demand for five more looms and one hundred and fifty more spinning wheels. Several men of the half breed, had both constructed looms and wove cloth in them, with their own hands.

Encouraged by these prospects and successes, the women appointed a time and solicited a talk with the agent. They appointed one of their venerable matrons

to deliver the talk to him in their behalf. He met them, and in the assembly of the women, was thus addressed: "Father, we women are poor and foolish; but you, as our great father, will excuse our poverty, and pardon our folly. When white men have come into our nation, they have never studied the good of the women, nor endeavoured to better their oppressed condition. All they have hitherto done is to make our situation more wretched. They have employed every art to raise and shorten our petticoats, and have thereby left us more exposed and naked than they found us. But you, father, commiserate our condition; you pity our nakedness and weakness; you say you will instruct us to cover ourselves, and be decent and warm; you will enable us to support ourselves, so that we and our children shall be in no danger of starving in the swamps. You come to lengthen our petticoats, and extend them over us from the hips to the ancles. Father, we will follow your advice: speak and we will obey."

He by degrees encouraged them to split rails, to make fences of them, to inclose their fields, and to till them with their own hands; himself showing them how, and by his example, convincing them that it was at once respectable and useful. Among the Creeks there was a peculiar difficulty in overcoming the aversion of the men to labour. Inured alternately to hunting, indolence and war, they threw all the toil of domestic affairs, the carrying of burthens and the drudgery of life upon their females. It was therefore a hard lesson to make the men work at all; and particularly to assist the women in their laborious occupations. The men, however, had learned by this time, that as game grew scarce in the forests, the employments of the women and girls turned to much better account than their own, and that with their pigs, maize and cotton, the females had already rendered themselves in a good degree independent of the men. It was now that the agent advised the young women to refuse favors to their sweethearts, and the married women to repel the caresses of their husbands, unless they would associate with them, and assist them in their daily labours. This expedient though perhaps not rigidly enforced, nor in all cases adhered to, was however not without its effect in breaking the ferocity of the masculine temper, and reducing it to a milder and softer tone.

To enforce the necessity of industry, Mr. H. availed himself of the scantiness

of provisions to give them an exhortation. Some instances had been reported of children dying of hunger, and particularly, of two little girls, as he was on his way to a conference with the chiefs. At the conference, the subject was mentioned by Mr. Cornells the interpreter, and after some observations made by the chiefs, Mr. H. stated that these events had made a serious impression upon his mind, and on the way to the conference he had put the question to himself, who killed these little girls? This answer immediately obtruded itself; "You Mr. Hawkins, you murdered these little girls. You Efau Haiyo, Oche Haiyo, and Tushinmeggee Tellico, you murdered these little girls. You chiefs and rulers of the nation, you murdered these little girls. In all countries it is the business of the rulers to direct the labour of the community so as to support the people, and if they neglect to do it, they are answerable for the consequences. If a bear, or any man, red or white, had attempted to murder these little girls you would have risked your lives individually or collectively to save theirs. And yet you would not exert yourselves to destroy this enemy called hunger."

The presenting the subject in this dress caused some serious conversations among the Indians, and the result was that they would sow wheat, and exert themselves to destroy the enemy called hunger. Preparent to this they had in 1804, committed to the earth one hundred and seventy-six bushels of seed; this afforded an excellent crop, and was instrumental in saving several lives. The agent furnished the seed from his own stock. The wheat crop is ripe in May. And the corn crop, which in favourable seasons is also exceedingly good, comes to maturity in June.

The speaker of the nation has his farm in good fence, staked and ridered. He cultivates his whole crop with the plough. Last year he planted about one hundred and fifty peach trees, and sowed three bushels of wheat. He had also begun the culture of cotton, and had a fine field of it; likewise a promising show of corn, potatoes, pumpkins, ground peas and beans. He had nine females of his family employed in spinning, and a loom in his house with a spring shuttle. The like was done by several other of the most considerable men, who employed the plough in agriculture, and clothed themselves in homespun.

Neat cattle were owned in large numbers by the Indians. Several of them have herds amounting to 100, 500, 1000, VOL. III.-No. v. 46

and even 2000 heads. They had become very much attached to this kind of stock, and took great pains to procure them. These creatures are computed to double their numbers every three years. Their owners exchange them with the Georgians for cloths. Butter and cheese have been made at more than an hundred places. In 1804, these arts were rapidly increasing. The men had also become acquainted with the tanning of hides into leather; and the making of the latter into saddles.

They also had negro slaves to work for them. The African temperament which bends to servitude nnder the dominion of the black and white man, submits also to the sovereignty of the red-man. Several of the more wealthy Indians hold a number of such domestics. They were rapidly acquiring a knowledge of real estates, and of the utility of holding their lands and improvements in severalty. In evidence of which, it may be mentioned that a number of them were growing solicitous about deeds and titles.

One remarkable fact concerning their progress in calculation is well worthy of notice. In teaching them the use of the steelyard, they necessarily became acquainted with arithmetical cyphers. By a little practice, not more than other persons are obliged to take, they learned the use of these signs in adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing numbers, and became ready and correct calculators. And this they accomplished without being able to read a single letter. The symbols of numbers being signs of ideas, were acquired with equal ease by persons of all languages, while letters or alphabetical characters being signs of simple sounds, can be comprehended by the persons only who are conversant in the tongue which they are intended to explain. A Muskagee Indian therefore, is exactly in this state of advancement; he can sum up an invoice, or bill of parcels, by virtue of his knowledge of figures, but he cannot read a word nor line of the writing on account of his total ignorance of letters.

Thus they begin to find the usefulness, and suffer the want of literature. The inconveniences and disadvantages of this situation rendered the older class, and especially those who had property, desirous of procuring a better education for their children. And under the operation of this conviction, they begun to admit schoolmasters, to make their idle and vagrant boys submit to restraint, and to receive regular instruction in reading and writing the English language.