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emption from all care, and spend their time in passing from one frolick to another, without a single circumstance ever occurring to mar or interrupt their festivities. It is not to be inferred from this, however, says Mr. Mathison, that they enjoy any positive or real happiness. They imagine themselves happy, it is true, but the fact is, (although they do not know it,) that they are very miserable, inasmuch as they are unacquainted with the christian theology. This is either very abstruse or very silly. For ourselves, we doubt the whole story of this perpetual sunshine in the lives of the Sandwich Islanders. They cannot be such as Mr. Mathison has described them; and it is only because we feel assured that they do not even possess the merely animal happiness which thus provokes our traveller's indignation, that we rejoice in the prospect of their speedy social and religious illumination.

There is much interesting and valuable matter in Mr. Proctor's book, which, although preceding the other in order of publication, refers to a period two years later than the era of Mr. Mathison's investigations. We shall take another opportunity to lay before our readers the result of the former gentleman's observations.

GEORGIA AND THE CREEKS.

When we made an exposition of the dispute between these parties, in our August number, we felt as if we were entering into an interminable controversy. The magnitude of the subject matter in dispute, and the political and personal interests, which the contrivers of this business had involved in its result, were so great, as to convince us, that we were provoking a contest with a party ready to take advantage of the least mistake, and determined not to yield conviction to arguments or testimony. It was scarcely, however, to be expected, that in a grave and momentous question, affecting the character of the country, and the fate of an Indian tribe dependant upon our faith for protection; the advocates of Georgia, (or rather of the Troup party,) would have sought refuge from the weight of fact, and the force of argument, in petty quibbles about the meaning of words, in criticisms upon style, and corrections of unimportant errors. But to our surprise, after seven weeks delay, (in which our former article on this subject obtained an extensive circulation, due rather to the importance of the question, than to any merit in the essay,) we meet with an elaborate answer in the National Intelligencer, highly recommended by its editors, under the signature of "Ista Hadki," in which the true ques

tion is put aside, and the efforts of the writer confined to discredit the immaterial statements of the author of the Review; whom he accuses" of inaccuracy, calumny, ignorance, unintelligible jargon, folly, impudence, falsehood, and malignity." To these courteous epithets, we do not mean to make the slightest reply; but taking it for granted, that this is the ordinary paraphernalia in which Ista Hadk: conveys his meaning, we shall proceed to correct some material statements with which this gentle Infidel has favoured the readers of the Intelligencer. This directness of epithet is a peculiarity of the Georgian School of diplomacy; and we are glad that the defence of such a cause is clotted in such appropriate language. In confining ourselves, however, to the examination of such statements as materially affect the point in issue, we do not intend to assent to the correctness of even, the immaterial assertions of Hadki. They must depend upon the evidence and documents to which the public has been referred; and when the authorities of Hadki are compared with his statements, it will be matter of astonishment, that his assertions were so positive, or that being made, any reference was given to substantiate them. For instance, he accuses the author of the Review of "falsehood," in asserting that the treaty was sanctioned by the Senate on the 3d of March, and refers to the Proclamation of the President, "which says," according to Hadki, "Whereas, the Senate, by resolution of the 2nd of March, advised." If reference should be had to that proclamation, which can be found in the National Intelligencer, of March 11th, and also at the end of the laws of the 2nd session, 18th Congress, it will there appear that the words are as follows: "in pursuance of the advice and consent of the Senate, as expressed by their resolution of the 3d inst."

Again; he asserts it to be false, "That the authorities of Georgia contend that the fee simple of the Indian land was vested in the state by the execution of the agreement of 1802." And yet Gov. Troup, in an official letter to the Secretary of War, of the date of February 28th, 1824,* says, that "from the day of the signature of the articles of agreement and cession, this word (viz. the power of refusal) ceased to be available to the Indians, for any permanent interest of their own." 66 On that day the fee simple passed from the rightful proprietors to Georgia."

He moreover insinuates, that the assertion, "that the treaty of 1814, was made with the whole Creek nation, including the hos

*Vide a message of the President, 30th of March, 1824, transmitting documents, &c. pp. 43.

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tile party," was unfounded; when the 8th article of that treaty * declares," that a permanent peace shall ensue from this date, between the Creek nation, and the United States." If this treaty had been made with the friendly Creeks alone, it could scarcely have been necessary to have inserted an article, declaring a peace between the parties for the future.

As little fairness is discovered in asserting that the title of Georgia to the Mississippi territory, has received the sanction of the Supreme Court of the United States. In the case of Fletcher vs. Peck, which is relied upon to prove that assertion, the title of Georgia came before the court upon a partial statement of facts, and as is generally suspected, upon a feigned issue, and the court merely decided that "from that special verdict, the lands appeared to lie within the state of Georgia." If all the facts connected with that title, had been inserted in the verdict, it is not to be doubted, that a different opinion would have been expressed by the court.

We have not room in the present number to enumerate the facts which were omitted in that verdict, nor to examine into the title of Georgia to that territory, to the assertion of which the greater part of the essay of Hadki is devoted. That task must be reserved for some future opportunity. Neither have we room nor inclination to follow our commentator through the different mazes in which he is wandering, to avoid a plain conclusion. Enough has been shown to prove the carelessness with which he makes his assertions, purporting to be in correction of our own, and the boldness with which he refers to authorities, that do not support him.

Errors like these, though excusable in none, are entirely inadmissible in a writer, whose powers are devoted to prove, that his antagonist does not know a Cherokee from a Creek, and that he has abused his mother tongue, in accusing Gov. Troup of using "rash and unjustifiable measures," when the Governor has in reality been only talking and writing, and also in calling a place within a day's journey of the capitol of the state "the western wilderness of Georgia." A person who rests the defence of his cause upon such captious exceptions, and extreme accuracy of detail, should evince his regard for his theory, by a little practical correctness; and should remember, that although some latitude may be allowed to the man of business, faultless orthography will always be exacted from the word-catching pedagogue.

*U. S. Laws, B. & D. Ed. 1st vol. p. 702.
Vide 6th Cranch, 142.

THE

ATHENEUM MAGAZINE.

OCTOBER, 1825.

DESCRIPTIVE JOURNAL OF A JAUNT UP THE GRAND CANAL; BEING A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN IN NEW-YORK, TO A LADY IN WASHINGTON, IN AUGUST, 1825.

I HAVE just returned from a jaunt up the North river, and the Mohawk, as far as Utica. I had never been farther west than Schenectady, and had never seen any part of our Grand Canal. On my way up to Albany, I stopped at Catskill, and proceeded to Pine-Orchard on the mountain-top, where a large stylish house of entertainment has recently been built. This is 3000 feet above the level of the Hudson, and you can readily imagine what an extensive and magnificent prospect is here displayed. There are two higher mountains in the back ground, computed at 3700 feet above the river, but Pine-Orchard affords the most advantageous view of the cultivated country between the river and the base of the mountain. At first sight, these farms and fields appear to form an immense plain, but you soon discover ridges and summits of intervening mountains, over some of which you passed on your way to the foot of the towering one on which you stand. At sunrise, the whole of this almost boundless plain was covered with a mantle of fleecy clouds resembling snow-drifts, and I at first imagined that I saw below me an ocean, which had been suddenly frozen and shrouded with snow, before its curling and foaming waves had time to subside. But in a little while they were all in motion, and the breeze rolling one ridge or winnow on another, they soon assumed the form of solid clouds, and stretching their wings to the gale, sailed off in squadrons towards the mountains of Connecticut. Ah! then, thought I, this perhaps is one of nature's looms, where she weaves her clouds at night, and then at early dawn, sends her busy and obedient winds to roll them together, and pack them off to her lofty store-house in the sky. The bottom of this fancied ocean was now fully unveiled; but instead of sand, and mud, and slimy rocks, oh! VOL. I.

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what a gay landscape of green waving woods, and cultured fields, and farm houses surrounded with orchards, and pasture grounds, and clumps of trees:-we could see the smoky wreaths above the shining roofs, and hear some rural soundsthe crowing cock, or barking dog; but neither man nor animal could be discerned without a glass. Adjoining the table land on which the house is erected, is a peak a few hundred feet higher, and a path winds around it to the top, from which you look directly down upon the house, and are very near it. About four miles from this lofty seat, there is a small cascade which all go to see; not on account of the water, which in mid-summer is merely a rill, but the uncommon height of the leap or pitch, and the picturesque scenery of the rocks. How shall I describe it? The water first falls 175 feet into a broad rocky basin, over the brim of which it then streams perpendicularly 80 feet, and then flowing through another basin, rushes down a ravine filled almost with rocks, until it reaches the valley. But the most curious part is a vast dome, or more properly semi-dome, formed in the rock, directly behind, and under the cascade. It is like a huge roof, perfectly semi-circular, under the eaves of which, inside, you walk along a narrow stony ledge or shelf for about 300 feet, as if on the seat or bench of an amphitheatre, while this enormous and lofty ceiling projects like a canopy 75 feet, sloping upwards, and forming in front a vast arch nearly a hundred feet high, and directly behind the falling water. In order to enter this ponderous dome, you descend from the top of the rock, where the stream commences its career, along the steep side of the 'ravine 170 feet to the first basin, and arrive at one side or wing of the front arch. The first impression is overwhelming you hesitate for a moment, and are awe-struck: such a wide and towering vault of solid rock, as if built by art!-what supports it? may it not possibly fall, and crush and bury you forever under its massy ceiling, nearly one hundred feet thick? But your feelings become too sublime to be restrained by your timidity, and you rush forward with a dauntless and ambitious step, as if bent on an achievement that is to immortalize your name, especially if you should have the good luck to be crushed, and buried like king Cheops, under a pyramid of rocks.

From the mountain I returned to the Hudson, and proceeded on to Albany, where I had not been since the commencement of the Grand Canal. Never having witnessed the mode of ascending through the locks, and navigating a canal, and being informed that I should see a most curious and interesting section of it between Albany and Schenectady, I took passage

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