different parts of his dominions, his difdain of fatigue, and undoubted perfonal courage, may probably render Sweden fome years hence more important in the fcale of Europe, than the has been fince Charles's death. At this inftant, there is a camp formed only half a mile without Stockholm, where his majefty is prefent every day, where he receives the compliments of the nobility and people of condition in his tent, and where he ufually fleeps. Very large reviews are intended in Scania, and in Finland; great military ftores are continually laid up, and every thing has the appearance of forecaft and defign. Unable to reward thofe officers who adhered particularly to him at the revolution, with penfions or pecuniary emoluments, he has found means to attach them by ribbons and stars, which he distributed without parfimony, and which are equally effectual, without draining an exhaufted treafury. He has likewife founded a new order of knighthood, known by the name of Vafa, which is defigned for men of merit in every ftation, and which is conferred, without the leaft attention to birth or distinction, on every man who deferves well of his country. He is active on all occafions, and more commonly on horfeback than in a carriage; and has rarely any of the parade of royalty: no guards attend him; and I have feen him enter the city with only one domeftic. In his perfon he is rather low, and inclined to thinnefs his face is not handfome, and, what is fingular, one fide of it does not refemble the other, his features being a little dif torted; an accident which probably happened in the birth,

The Swedes univerfally lament that he has no children by the queen; and it is on this account, that his next brother prince Charles is now married, in hopes of an heir to the throne. The king is faid not to be of an amorous complexion, or attached to women.

When I went over the palace fome days ago, I was ftruck with a fmall head of a beautiful woman, in his own private apartment. The attendant informed me, it was a lady to whom the king was much devoted, when on his travels; that fhe is fince dead; and that when he received the news, he burst into tears, and would not be feen for two days; so paffionate was his regard to her memory.'

In the beginning of June Mr. Wraxall quitted Stockholm, and proceeded for Upfal. He informs us, that at this feafon of the year darknefs is unknown in Sweden, and he could very peafily have read a good print at unidnight. After being treat.ed with great hofpitality at two houfes belonging to a gentleman of diftinction, he arrived the third day at Forfmark, the country feat of a lady whofe hufband was an Englishman, and lately dead. The company at the houfe confifted of an old nobleman, and two ladies who were upon a vifit. The eldest was about fixty, and converfed very fluently in English, which he had acquired from, comme Gyllenbourg's lady, a native of Eng

1

England, and who was married to the count during his refidence as envoy at the court of London. The youngeft, who was her niece, was an amiable young lady about twenty, whofe charms feem to have made not a little impreffion on the fufceptible e heart of the traveller. But we fhall pass over the detail of gallantry, to prefent our readers with further confir mation relative to the manner of the death of Charles XIIIS ***We all breakfafted, fays our author, in our feparate rooms the next morning, according to the cuftom here," where people never meet, as in England, to eat toaft and butter and drink tea round a large table.

37

On coming down I found the nobleman whom I mentioned at my first arrival. He is by birth a Pomeranian, and is called count Liewen; he poffeffes the highest honors Sweden can be flow, being one of the fixteen fenators, and a knight of the Seraphim, which is the most honourable of any order. Our conversation turning on Charles the XIIth, his character, and victories: I asked him, if he remembered that monarch's death, and would favour me with the particulars of it. He gave me the fullest answer to this question, which, as it is perhaps the most authentic and indifputable authority to be procured, I thall repeat, as nearly as my memory affifts me, in his own words.

n

There are now very few men alive, faid he, who can speak with fo much certainty to that point as myfelf. I was in the camp before Fredericfhall, and had the honor to ferve the king in quality of page, on that night when he was killed. I have no doubt that he was affaffinated. The night was as extremely dark, and it was almost an impoffibility that a ball from the fort could enter his head at the diftance, and on the spot where he ftood. I faw the king's body, and am certain the wound in his temple was made by a pistol bullet. Who gave it is known. Siker was fufpected, because he was not with his majefty previous to the blow, but appeared a moment after. Thole, added he, who are ufed to military affairs, know the report and noise which a cannon ball makes; but the report of the fhot which deftroyed the king was that of a piece clofe at hand, and totally different. I do not believe the prince of Heffe was concerned, or privy to it, in any degree; but the belief that he was put to death by a private hand, was general in the army at the time."

Count Liewen, we are told, had vifited almost all the courts of Europe, and among others had been in England in 1722. Mr. Wraxal confeffes that he was abfolutely enchanted with the converfation of this venerable nobleman, and felt that wisdom ¿can fascinate as much as beauty, where it is fo pre-eminently poffeffed.

The neceflity of purfaing our tour through the literature of the month, obliges us at prefent to break off the narrative of I i a this

this, and fentimental traveller, which we cannot feeling fuch emotions as himself appears to have experienced at his departure from Forfmark PidTal

quit

[To be continued. ] ́

Raperdi. 111. The Hiftory of the American Indians; particularly thofe Nations adjoining to the Miffifippi, Eaft and West Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia. By James Adair, Efq. 410. 15s, boards. Dilly.

OF

F all the prejudices which mifguide the understanding, an attachment to hypothefis, or fyftem, is one of the most invincible; and when once it has taken hold of the mind, efpecially of the inventor, it can hardly be eradicated by the utmoft force of argument. The author of the work before us appears to be deeply involved in this predicament. Having accidentally, we fuppofe, conceived an idea that the Indians might be defcended from the Jews, the notion immediately poffeffed his fancy, and he fet himself to evince it by every confideration which his ingenuity could fuggeft. Accordingly he inftitutes a comparison between the various cuftoms and other circumstances of the Indians and Hebrews; and his Imagination being ftrongly impreffed with the preconceived opinion, he is captivated with an ideal fimilarity in every step of his progrefs.

The volume commences with fome obfervations on the colour, shape, temper, and drefs of the Indians of America, whom often, in the course of the work, the author, with the triumphant air of a person who has made fome important difcovery, denominates the "red, or copper-coloured Hebrews." Without making any remark on Mr. Adair's opinion, that the colour of the Indians is chiefly owing to the practice of anointing their bodies, we fhall proceed to his obfervations on their origin and defcent.

He endeavours to fupport his hypothefis, of the Indians being defcended from the Jews, by twenty-three arguments, of which it may be fufficient to give a curfory, account.

The first argument is, their divifion into tribes. • The genealogical names which they affume, fays the author, are derived, either from the names of those animals, whereof the cherubim are faid in revelation, to be compounded; or from fuch creatures as are most familiar to them. They have the families of the eagle, paniber, eger, and buffalo; the family of the bear, deer, racoon, tortoise, Snake, fifb; and, likewife, of the wind. The laft, if not derived from the appearance of the divine glory, as expreffed by the prophet Ezekiel, may be of

Ty rian

Tyrian extraction.'But, we would afk Mr. Adair, if the Indians be defcended from the Jews, why have they not retained the names, and precife number, of the tribes of those people? This objection is far from being obviated, by telling us, that When we confider the various revolutions thofe unlettered favages are likely to have undergone, among themfelves, through a long-forgotten meafyre of time; and that, probably, they have been above twenty centuries without the ufe of letters to convey down their traditions, it cannot be reasonably ex expected they fhould fill retain the identical names of their primogenial tribes. Why not? For what reafon fhould they refign to oblivion, the names of their patriarchs, to which the Jews are known to be fo extremely attached, and choose to be denominated from the eagle, panther, tyger, racoon, >&c rather than from Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, &c, "But of thefe, and the like objections, this fagacious author is farAnifhed with a fort and general folution. • Their main cúftoms, fays he, correfponding with thofe of the Ifraelites, fufficiently clears the fubject. Befides, as hath been hinted, they call fome of their tribes by the names of the cherubimical figures that were carved on the four principal ftandards of Ifrael.This is a mode of argument which perhaps might prove fatisfactory to the understanding of an Indian; but, by a more enlightened people, will probably be confidered as "The wild fuggeftions of a perfon who is unaccountably prejudiced in favour of a chimerical fyftem..

This

The "fecond argument by which the author would eftablish 4the Jewish descent of the Indians is, their worship of a Supreme Being, whom they style robewab, or Leak-Ifhioboollo- Aba. sargument amounts to no more, than that they do not main. tain a plurality of deities.

~41>The third argument is, their notions of a theocracy.—This Tallegation feems to be founded upon no better teftimony than the preceding; being derived entirely from the name hottuk die toopab, "the beloved people," by which the Indians call themfelves; a diftinction which is the effect of that national partiality which may be obferved among every people.

Argument IV. is their belief of the ministration of angels. The fact fimply is, that the Indians believe in the existence of two forts of fpirits, good and bad; the former, they fuppofe, inhabit the higher regions; and the latter, the dark regions of motheoweit.boung uns

9 Argument V. Their language and dialects. It has been to often obferved, that there is no language in which fome He. brew words are not to be found; and it does not appear from the inftancesa produced, that the language of the Indians is Lis3an

any

any thing particular in this respect. If, as Mr. Adair alleges, the Indians are defcended from the Jews, and were: the aborigines of America; how happens it, that they did not retain the language of the country from whence they had emigrated ? For we cannot fuppofe that their native language could receive any alteration by an admixture of foreign dialect, after their arrival on a continent which was inhabited by none but themselves.

Argument VII. Their manner of counting time,It appears that the Indians reckon the year by lunar months; but in this conformity to the practice of the Hebrews, they are likewife not particular,

Argument VII. Their prophets and high priests.With refpect to prophets, it may be obferved, that the opinion of certain perfons being endowed with the capacity of predicting future events, is almoft univerfally prevalent among ignorant and uncivilized people; and as to the other clafs mentioned, the Romans had their pontifex maximus, or high priest, as well as the Hebrews or Indians.

Argument VIII. Their feftivals, fafts, and religious rites. T'he author here prefents us with a comparative recital of the religions ceremonies of the Jews and Indians, and endeavours to evince that there is a ftriking fimilarity between them, The circumftance, however, in which they chiefly resemble each other, is that of dancing, which was ufual with almoft all the pagan nations, as well as the Hebrews.

Argument. IX. Their daily facrifice. The practice of the Indians, in this article, is reprefented as analogous to that of the Hebrews; because, as the latter made an offering of a Jamb every, morning and evening, fo the Indian women throw a fmall piece of the fatteft of the meat into the fire when they are eating. But it is evident that this cuftom is is rather an act of fuperftition, than a religious ceremony; and, as well as the practice of libation, was not unfrequent among the pagans.

Argument X. Their ablutions and anointings.-Thefe cuf toms likewife prevailed too univerfally in the eaftern couutries, to be cited as inftances of any peculiar refemblance.

Argument XI. Their laws of uncleannefs-A narrative of customs, neither peculiar to the religion of the Hebrews, nor the fuperftition of the Indians.

Argument XII. Their abftinence from unclean things.-In this article, likewife, the Hebrews and Indians are not finsubjec gular. Here, however, mention is made of a fubject which we expected to fee treated under the head of religious rites, to which it more properly belonged. We mean the practice of

t