natives. We learn from Mr. Edwards, Hist. West Indies, Vol. I. p. 55, 56, that as early as the discovery of Columbus, the people of the islands he visited were found abundantly furnished with a substantial cotton cloth of native manufacture. This they stained with various colours; but the one they most admired was red. A common origin, to go no farther, may perhaps be affixed to the inhabitants of the different islands in this part of the western world and the people of the adjacent continent; hence the striking conformity in manners, customs, &c. which have been so frequently traced as characteristic of both.

The rivers flowing through this extensive country are very nume rous, and most of them are navigable a considerable distance for canoes or small vessels, The many spacious lagoons with which it abounds, render it also, in a picturesque point of view, singu larly interesting.

Of the former, the most de serving of notice are, Black, or Rio-Tinto, Plantain, Patook, Poyers, great and little, Cape, Coree, Towkcas, Bluefields, &c. Of the latter, Black-river, Brewers, Caratasca, Wava, Pearl-key, Bluefields, &c.

Fishes of infinite variety are the inhabitants of both; and the neighbouring grounds abound with deer, antelopes, warree, and peccary. Birds of various species, adorned with all the richness of plumage so peculiar to tropical situations, enliven every spot. And the whole of these may be viewed as almost holding an undisturbed possession of their native haunts; for necessity alone, and that of

the most imperious kind, can ever impel the Indian to seek for either.

The cattle are small, but, from the vast extent and excellence of the pasturage, the meat they supply is fat and extremely well flavoured. Horses are also very numerous, and though generally small, not unhandsome. Hogs are raised in extraordinary numbers; and poultry of all kinds is abundant and large.

Many of the Mosquito Indians are of a mixed breed, between that of the Aboriginal, and the negro of the Samba country. Accident produced this variety, from the circumstance of an African slave-ship, many years past, having been wrecked on their coast, from which several women were saved, and who were immediately chosen by the natives for wives.

The men in general are athletic and well formed. Their height, on an average, may be taken at five feet eight. The women are frequently handsome; their children, when young, are particularly so. Their habits and intercourse with each other denote much affection, the old and the young being found in continual association.

They wear little cloathing. Seldom any thing more, men and women, than a small kind of wrapper, which reaches from the lower part of the waist to the middle of the thigh. On particular occasions the chief men usually appear in British regimentals, the military titles of which nation they invariably adopt. Many of them hold commissions from the governor of Jamaica, and from his Majesty's superintendant of Hon

duras. The women are in the habit of decorating their persons with a profusion of beads, to which species of finery they are passionately attached, and very commonly paint their faces and necks with a kind of red ochre, which is found in their country. Their children go entirely naked; and, when young, are always borne on the back of the mother. Amongst these people, all the offices of the domestic kind are exclusively performed by the female the male would be degraded by such services.

Their dwellings are formed in a style of the rudest simplicity, being little more than a number of rough poles placed perpendicularly in the ground, and roofed with the leaves of the palmetto tree. They are usually large, and left entirely open at the sides. The floor is of clay, and in the centre of it is the fire-place. These habitations seldom contain more than one apartment, and this commonly affords accommodation to several families. The bed of each, a mat, is placed on what is called a barbecu, a frame made of sticks, and raised a few feet from the ground. This, with a few earthen pots for cookery, are the chief articles of furniture.

The government of the Mosquito Indians is hereditary; and a very exact and perfect idea of the British law of succession is entertained by them. It is a subject which engages much of their attention, from its having long been one of close imitation amongst themselves. Indeed, it would perhaps be found, that many points of our doctrine of primogeniture are much more accurately understood

by these people than by some who are more immediately interested in such discussions. It certainly is not unfrequent to find Indians in this nation, at least those of the supe. rior class, capable of discoursing on such topics with a precision that might reflect no discredit on a civilian.

The late king, George, was murdered, and his death attributed very openly to the designs of his brother, Prince Stephen. The former was unalterably attached to the English; the latter, it is confidently pronounced, has been seduced by bribery to very opposite interests, and with which he has sedulously attempted to infect his countrymen. The schemes of Prince Stephen, however, have met with little success; which has principally arisen from the unremitted and active vigilance of general Robinson, one of the next persons in point of consequence to the royal family, and who contrives to preserve a kind of regency until the son and heir of the late king shall become of age to take upon himself the business of government. The present king is but a youth, and some years ago was sent to Jamaica to be educated under the direction and guidance of the governor of that island.

The laws of these people are simple and concise. The legislative and judicial power, as it usually happens in nations where no fixed principles of either have been acquired, resides exclusively in the will of him who governs. The king, or chief, is completely despotic. Whenever he dispatches a messenger, his commands are always accompanied by his cane: this token establishes the credibi

lity of the bearer, and a sudden compliance with the purport of his errand. In this way decrees are enforced, the punishment due to offence remitted, or the severest sentence annexed to it carried into instant execution.

They have one law against adultery, which has something curious in it. The fine imposed on the offender is, that he pay the injured husband an ox. This penalty, the head man of the particular tribe to which the adulterer belongs, is strictly bound by long custom to see punctually complied with, or one of his own cattle may be taken as a lawful indemnity. Should the latter happen, the chief then exacts, as an equivalent for what he loses by the offence, a stated period of servitude from the offender.

In this country there is neither priest, physician, or lawyer; but there is a professor of another science, who commonly unites the duties of the three; this is the sokee, or conjuror, a person of high importance, and whose occult skill is ever regarded with the deepest and most implicit veneration.

They have no modes of public worship, nor could any particular forms of religious persuasion be found to prevail amongst them. There is little doubt, however, of their paying adoration to evil spirits, from a singular belief which is entertained, that they have much more inconvenience to apprehend from the influence of the bad than the good.

In common with most, if not with all rude tribes, polygamy is freely allowed, and a plurality of wives is the privilege of every hus

band in the Mosquito nation; but perhaps it has seldom been indulged in equal extent in any country. Many men here claim from two to six wives; few can be found satisfied with one: their late king surpassed all his subjects in this respect; he claimed no less than twenty-two! His Mosquito majesty might very well have exclaimed with honest Launcelot"Alas! fifteen wives is nothing." At the same time it may be observed, that this circumstance is attended with far less inconvenience than might possibly be found annexed to it in most other situations, the numerous claimants for the affection or favour of their lord never discovering the least jealousy or hatred towards each other.

The females are taken for wives at a very tender age, frequently when they have scarcely attained their tenth year. At the hour of their birth, the contract for their destination in this respect is not uncommonly formed with the husband and their parents. And from what would seem so premature an engagement, that which usually discovers itself in this sex must be expected to happen, an earlyappearanceof advancedyears. It is likewise observed, a natural consequence of the above, that the duration of life between the sexes is found greatly disproportionate.

A singular custom is scrupulously observed by the women of this nation. At the time of parturition, an habitation is prepared for them in the deepest recesses of the woods, to which, with a female assistant, they retire, and where they remain secluded from every eye for a stated period.

This past, a public lustration of themselves and offspring must take place previous to their being again admitted to the society of their relatives and friends.

These Indians may in one respect be thought to resemble the improvisatori of some other countries. Their metrical effusions being entirely spontaneous, and usually thrown into a kind of measure, which, if it be rude and uncultivated, possesses, nevertheless, something peculiarly soft and plaintive to recommend it. The subjects which excite their verse are chiefly of the latter description.

In a political point of view, an alliance with the Mosquito Indians can be considered but of relative importance. They hold little pretension to the character of warlike, the last quality, however, that humanity might wish to contemplate them in; nor are there any advantages of a commercial nature resulting from such connection. The implacable enmity they have ever borne towards one nation, our frequent foe, from what cause it may be unnecessary to inquire, is perhaps the best claim they can offer for the extension of our friendship.

This nation cannot number at the utmost more than 1,500 or 2,000 men capable of using arms. Immediately contiguous to it are two other tribes, called the Poyers and the Towkcas. These people are more numerous, and considered much more enterprising and brave, although they are tributary

to the former, and have been so from time immemorial. The acknowledgment of this dependance is expressed by the annual payment of a certain number of cat tle. But neither the Poyers or Towkcas possess any thing like the civilization of the Mosquito people. Hence, unquestionably, the cause and continuance of their vassalage.

Account of Salt Works at Namptwich in the County of Chester. [From Messrs. Lysous' Magna Britannia.]

Mr. Webb, in his Itinerary of Cheshire, printed in King's ValeRoyal, speaking of Nantwich, and the excellency of the cheese made in the neighbourhood of that town, says, notwithstanding all the trials that our ladies and gentlewomen make in their dairies in other parts of the county, and other counties of the kingdom; yet can they never fully match the perfect relish of the right Nantwich cheese; nor can, I think, that cheese be equalled by any other made in Europe, for pleasantness of taste and wholesomeness of digestion, even in the daintiest stomachs of them that love it.' Fuller, in his Worthies, speaking of Cheshire, says, this county doth afford the best cheese for quantity and quality, and yet their cows are not (as in other shires) housed in the winter ;* so: that it may seem strange that the hardiest kine should make the

tenderest cheese. Some essayed in vain to make the like in other places, though from thence they fetched both their kine and dairy-maids: it seems they should have fetched their ground too (wherein is surely some occult ex. cellency in this kind), or else so good cheese will not be made. I hear not the like commendation of the butter in this county, and perchance these two commodities are like stars of a different horizon, so that the elevation of the one to eminency is the depression of the other.'

Dr. Leigh, in his Natural History of Cheshire, and Dr. Campbell, in his Political Survey, attribute the peculiar flavour of the Cheshire cheese to the abundance of saline particles in the soil of this country; and the latter observes, that in the neighbourhood of Nantwich, where the brine springs most abound, the cheeseis esteemed to be of the most superior quality; the opinion that prime cheese is produced exclusively from pastures under which salt springs are found, is now exploded. In Mr. Wedge's General View of the Agriculture of Cheshire, published in 1794, may be found a copious account of the process of cheese-making, as practised in this county. Mr. Holland, in his late Survey, calculates that the number of cows kept for

*

the dairy in Cheshire is about 32,000; and that the quantity of cheese annually made from them is about 11,500 tons :+ The greater part of theCheshire cheese, particularly that of the south part of the county, is sold to the London cheesemongers, through the medium of factors, who reside in the neighbourhood: some is sent by the Mersey to Liverpool; some inland, by the Staffordshire canal; and a considerable quantity by other canals, to the markets of Stockport and Manchester.

It is certain, from the record of Domesday, that salt was one of the principal articles of commerce in this county, from a very early period; and that it produced a considerable revenue to the crown before the Norman conquest; the king having two-thirds, and the Earl of Chester one-third of the tolls; in which manner it continued to the time of Hugh Lupus. It appears that the Wiches, as they are called in the Survey, were very productive in the reign of Edward the Confessor. When Hugh Lupus was first created Earl of Chester, the salt-works belonging to the king and the earl, at Middlewich and Nantwich, having before produced a rent of 16. per ann. were wholly disused and unproductive; and those at Nantwich, whence the king and earl Edwin had derived an income of 207. per ann.