View of the climate and soil of the United States of America, etc. Few MS. notes

Front matter

VIEW OF THE CLIMATE AND SOIL OF THE United States of America : TO WHICH ARE ANNEXED SOME ACCOUNTS OF FLORIDA, THE FRENCH CO- LONY ON THE SCIOTO, CERTAIN CANADIAN CO- LONIES, AND THE SAVAGES OR NATIVES : TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF C. F. VOLNEY, .-.EMBER OF THE CONSERVATIVE SENATE, AND THE FRENCH NA- TIONAL INSTITUTE, AND HONORARY MEMBER OF THE AMERI- CAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AT PHILADELPHIA, THE ASIATIC SOCIETY AT CALCUTTA, THE ATHENEUMS OF AVIGNON, -LENQON, &C. WITH MAPS AND PLATES. LONDON. PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, 72, st. Paul's church yard, By C, Merrier and Co. 6, Northumberland-Court. 1804. P RE FA CE. THE new work I here submit to the public is the fruit of three years travels and residence in the United States, in a frame of mind very dissimilar from that with which I visited the Ottoman domi nions, and when the face of affairs was ex tremely different.

In 1783 I set sail from Marseilles on a pursuit agreeable to my inclinations ; and with that alacrity, that confidence in others and in myself, which youth inspires. I gayly left a country of peace and plenty, to live in a land of barbarism and wretchedness, without any other motive than that of employing the time of a restles and active youth in procuring knowledge of a new kind, and through it's means of ema bellishing the remainder of my life with a radiant circle of reputation and esteem. In the year 3 on the contrary (1795), I embarked at Havre with that disgust and indifference, which the sight and experience * of injustice and persecution impart. Sorrowful at the past, anxious for the fu ture, I was going with distrust to a free people, to try whether a sincere friend of that Liberty, whose name had been so pro faned, could find for his declining years a peaceful asylum, of which Europe no longer afforded him any hope.

In this disposition I visited successively al most all parts of the United States, studying the climate, laws, inhabitants, and their man ners, chiefly with regard to social life and domestic happiness. And such was the re sult of my observations and reflections, that, considering on one hand the gloomy and boisterous state of France and -all * I had been in different prisons ten months, till after h* 9th of thermidor. V Europe j the probability of long and ob stinate wars from the contest arisen between prejudices on the decline and knowledge increasing, between despotisms grown old and young liberties arising : on the other the peaceful and smiling aspect of the United States, in consequence of the im mense extent of territory to be peopled, the facility of acquiring landed property, the necessity and profits of labour, personal freedom and the liberty of a man's em ploying his industry in any way he might think proper, and the mildness of the go vernment, founded on it's very weakness : after weighing all these motives, I had formed a resolution, to remain in the United States j when, in the spring of 1798, an epidemic animosity against the French breaking out, and the threat of an imediate rupture, compelled me to withdraw.

Appendix

. On the winds of Sweden Elucidations of different articles mentioned in the work. ]. On Florida, and the work of Bernard Romans, entitled a Concise Natural and Moral History of East and West Florida S39 II. On the History of New Hampshire, by Jeremiah Belknap, member of the philosophical society of Philadelphia ; qnd the History of Vermont, by S- Williams, member of the Meteorological society of Page. Germany, and the Philosophical society of Philadelphia . . . 349 III. Gallipolis, or the French colony on the Ohio 355 IV. Of the colony at Fort Vincents on the Wabash, and <f the French colonies on the Missisippi and Lake Erie . . 367 V. General Observatio?is on the Indians or savages of North America . . 393 VI. Vocabulary of the language of the Miamis, a tribe settled on the Wabash . . VIEW OF THE CLIM.iTE AND SOIL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

CHAP. I. Geographical Situation of the United 'States, and Superficies of their Territory. 1 O give the most simple idea of the geogra phical situation of the United States, I would de fine their territory to be that part of North Ame rica, which is bounded, on the east, by the ocean that washes the shores of Europe and Africa ; on the south, by the West Indian sea, and the gulf of Mexico; on the west, by the great river* of * The Missisippi, a name derived from the words metchin sipi, which signify great river, in the language of the Mia mis, a tribe of savages still inhabiting the country near the sources of the Miami and Wabash. It is remarkable, that the first ideas formed of the Missisippi in Canada came from this quarter, and from these savages, who annually make a R Louisiana; on the north, by that of Canada, and the five great lakes, from which it's waters are dep rived.

In an age when the advantage of natural boundaries are so well known, we can scarcely question, that these will sooner or later form the limits of the country, as they are so distinctly marked : but a strict regard to the present state of things obliges us, to retrench from these the peninsula and coasts of the Floridas on the south, and the lower part of the course of the St. Lawrence, from lake St. Francis, as well as Nova Scotia and New Brunswic, constituting almost the whole of the country formerly possessed by the French in Lower Canada *. This vast territory, measuring from north to south, comprises more than sixteen degrees of la titude, namely from 310 north to about 47°f» warlike excursion, founded on an ancient grudge, against the Chactaws and Chicassaws, who dwell toward the lower part of the river. * Louisiana, however, extending west as far as Nevr Mexico, has lately been annexed to the United States.

T. f ' Jusipiies vers le 47° :' this seems scarcely consistent with ' plus de 16 degris.' Morse gives lat. 46° for the northern boundary : but a map I have before me, by S. Dunn, corrected from the surveys of Captain Carver, places the line Shat divides the United States from the British territories it some parts as far north as 48° 30' . Indeed Morse's map ap pears to agree with this, so that he probably took 46° as the medium of t"* boundary line. T. j^rom east to west it includes upward of five and twenty degrees of longitude, which would seem to produce an immense superficies : but as the coast on the Atlantic runs diagonally from north-east to south-west, and the five lakes of Canada encroach upon it with a large sweep, reaching to the la titude of 400, the absolute superficies will be found to be diminished more than one third.

Hutchins, the first geographer who attempted to calculate this superficies after the peace of 1783, which established the independence of the States, estimated it at ? million of English miles square, or about 1 1 2000 old French leagues ; which would make the territory of the United States nearly four times as much as that of France in 1789, or that of Spain and Portugal together, and almost seven times as much as that of Great Britain including Ireland. The Americans quote these comparisons with selfsatisfaction -, and their vanity, which is fond of anticipating the future, already measures foreigners by this scale of proportion : but if we reflect, that throughout this vast country there existed in 1801 * only five1 millions two hundred and fourteen thousand eight hundred and one inhabitants, of whom about * Census published at Philadelphia the 21st of Septem-* ber, 1 80 1 . — (American General Advertiser.) b eight hundred and eighty thousand, or a sixteenth of the whole, were black slaves, and that the in habitants are for the most part dispersed throughout the country, it will be obvious, that this extensive ness of territory is in reality a cause of weakness at present, and does not promise to be a source of union in future.

Besides, the territory has been considerably amplified by Hutchins, who was un acquainted with the sources of the Missisippi, and knew but little of the north of the Ohio*; and the calculations of this geographer, though he was a very worthy man, and they were sufficient for my purpose, have not that incontestible authority, which have been allowed them by his successors, echoing the opinions of one another. Now if we compare the United States with the countries in similar latitudes of our hemisphere, we shall find, that their southern parts, as Geor gia and Carolina, correspond to Morocco and the coast of Barbary, almost to the shores of Egypt ; and it is remarkable, that the mouths of the Mis sisippi coincide with those of the Nile, but in an opposite direction ; these in the latitude of 31?, those of 290, the Nile flowing from the south, * I have seen in the hands of Mr. Jefferson a letter writ ten to him by Hutchins, dated February the 11th, 1784, in Which he acknowledges having committed very great mis.* takes in his calculations of the Northwestern Territory. the Missisippi from the north, both with nearly the same phenomena of inundation, wealth, and excellence.

The analogy of the country of Ame rica may be continued through Syria, the centre of Persia, Tib*;t, and the centre of China. Savan nah, Tripoli, Alexandria, Gaza, Biissorah, Ispa han, Lahor, Nankin, are, within a decree, under the same parallel. The northern parts, on the other hand, as Massachusetts and New Hamp shire, answer to the south of France, the centre of Italy, Turkey in Europe, the Black Sea, the Caspian, the deserts of Tatary, and the north of China : Boston and Barcelona, Ajaccio, and Rome, to which we might almost add Constanti nople and Derbond, are likewise within a degree under the same latitude. From these compa risons we may infer great diversity of climate -, and in fact the United States include the extremes of all the countries I have mentioned, though we observe in them a gradation with respect to their latitudes, and still more with respect to the level of the surface, in which certain peculiar characteristics lead me to distinguish four principal di visions.

The first, that of the coldest climate, includes the north-eastern states, as they are called, or New England, the natural boundary of which is traced by the southern side of Rhode-Island an4 P Connecticut on the ocean, and interiorly by the chain of hills, that furnishes the waters of the Delaware and Susquehannah. The second, which I call the middle climate, applies to the central states, that is the south of New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, as far as the river Potowmack, or, to speak more pre cisely, to the Patapsco. The third, that of the hot climate, comprises the southern states, or the flat country of Vir ginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia, as far as Florida, where frost ceases to be known in the la titude of 2 90. The fourth is the climate of the western states, Tenessee, Kentucky, and the Territory north west of the Ohio, or North-western Territory, lying behind the Alleghany chain, and on the west of the preceding states.

The distinguishing cha racteristic of this climate is, that it is hotter, 1_>y nearly three degrees of latitude, than the corresponding country toward the Atlantic, though se parated from it solely by the Alleghany mountains, as I shall mention hereafter.

Chapter II

Aspect of the Country. TO a European traveller, and more especially to one accustomed like me to the naked lands of Egypt, of Asia, and on the borders of the Mediterranean, the prominent feature of the American soil is a wild appearance of almost uninterrupted forest, which displays itself on the shores of the sea, and continues growing thicker and thicker as you proceed into the interior of the country. During the long journey I made in 1796, from the mouth of the Delaware through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, to the river Wabash ; thence to the north, through the Northwestern Territory, as far as Fort Detroit ; then by the way of Lake Erie to Nigara and Albany j and the year following from Boston to Richmond in Virginia ; I scarce travelled three miles together on open and cleared land.

Every where I found the roads, or rather paths, bordered and over shadowed with coppices or tall trees ; the silence and sameness of which, the soil in some places parched up, in others marshy, trees fallen through age, or blown down by storms, and rotting on » the ground, with the tormenting swarms of breeze flies, moschettoes, and gnats*, do not possess all the charms, that our romance-writers dream of amid the smoke of a city in Europe. It is true, on the shores of the Atlantic this continental forest displays some openings, formed by the brackish marshes, and the cultivated fields that are continually extending round the absorbing fo cus of the cities. It has also considerable vacan cies in the western countries, particularly from the Wabash to the Missisippi, toward the borders of Lake Erie and the river St. Lawrence, in Ken tucky, and in Tenessee ; where the nature of the soil, and still more the ancient and annual con flagrations of the savages, have produced spacious deserts, called Savannahs by the Spaniards, and ■prairies by the Canadians, as also by the Ame ricans, who have adoDted this word.

These de- ' J. serts I cannot compare with those I have seen in Syria and Arabia, but rather with what are called the steps or deserts of Tatary ; the Savannahs, like the steps, being covered with thick shrubby plants, three or four feet high, exhibiting during summer and autumn a rich tapestry of verdure and flowers, very seldom to be seen in the bare and naked de serts of Arabia. Throughout the rest of the * A small black fly, worse than the gnat of Europe. United States, particularly in the mountainous parts of the interior country, from which the ri vers flow in opposite directions, some to the At lantic, others to the Missisippi, the realms of fo rest have experienced but slight infringements on their domain ; and compared with France we may say, that the entire country is one vast wood.

If the whole of the country could be taken in at one view, we should perceive this forest to be divided into three grand districts, distinguished from each other by the kind, species, and aspect of the trees that compose it. The species of these trees, according to the remark of the Americans, indicate the nature and qualities of the soil, on which they grow. The first of these districts, which I call the southern forest, includes the maritime parts of Virginia, of the two Carolina^, of Georgia, and of the Floridas, and extends, generally speaking, from Chesapeak Bay to the river St. Mary, on a soil of gravel and sand, occupying in breadth from eighty to a hundred and thirty miles. The whole of this space, covered with pines, firs, larches, cypres ses, and other resinous trees, displays a perpetual ver-r dure to the eye, but would not be on this account the less barren, if the sides of the rivers, land depo sited by the' waters, and marshes, did not intermingle with it veins rendered highly productive by cultivation.

The second district, or middle forest, com prises the hilly part of the Carolinas and Virginia, all Pennsylvania, the south of New York, all Kentucky and the North-western Territory, as far as the river Wabash. The whole of this ex tent is filled with different species of the oak, beech, maple, walnut, sycamore, acacia, mul berry, plum, ash, birch, sassafras, and poplar, on the coasts of the Atlantic ; and, in addition to these, on the west, the cherry-tree, horse-chesnut, papaw, magnolia, sumac, &c. ; all of which indicate a productive soil, the true basis of the present and future wealth of this part of the United States. These kinds of forest trees, however, do not any where entirely exclude the resinous, which appear scattered throughout all the plains, and col lected in clumps on the mountains, even of the lower order, as the chain in Virginia called the South-west : and it is a singular circumstance, that here they deviate from their customary de signation of sterility, for the fat and deep red soil of this chain is extremely fertile.

The third district, or northern forest, likewise composed of pines, firs, larches, cedars, cypresses^ &c, begins from the confines of the former, co= vers the north of New York, the interior of Con necticut and the Massachusetts gives it's name to the state of Vermont*, and leaving to the deciduous fo rest trees only the banks of the rivers and their alluvions, extends by the way of Canada toward the north, where it soon gives way to the juniper, and the meagre shrubs thinly scattered among the de serts of the polar circle. Such is the general aspect of the territory of the United States : an almost uninterrupted continental forest: five great lakes on the north : on the west extensive Savannahs : in the centre a chain of mountains, their ridges running in a direction parallel to the seacoast, the dis tance of which is from fifty to a hundred and thirty miles, and sending off to the east and west rivers of longer course, of greater width, and pouring into the sea larger bodies of water, than ours in Europe ; most of these rivers having cascades or falls from twenty to a hundred and forty feet in height, mouths spacious as gulfs, and on the southern coasts marshes extending above two hun- * Formed from the French Verd-Mont, which the people have adopted from partiality to the French of Canada, and which is the translation of the English name, Green-Mountain.

(A writer in the American Museum more naturally supposes Green-Mountain to have been changed to Vermont for the sake of euphony. T.) dred and fifty miles in length : on the north, snows remaining four or five months of the year : on a coast of three hundred leagues extent, ten or twelve cities, all built of brick, or of wood painted of different colours, and containing from ten to sixty thousand inhabitants : round these cities farm-houses, built of trunks of trees, which they call log-houses, in the centre of a few fields of wheat, tobacco, or indian corn ; these fields separated by a kind of fence made with branches of trees instead of hedges, for the most part full of stumps of trees half burnt, or stripped of their bark, and still standing; while both houses and fields are enchased as it were in masses of forest, in which they are swallowed up, and diminish both in number and extent the farther you advance into the woods, till at length from the summits of the hills you perceive only here and there a few little brown or yellow squares on a ground of green.

Add to this a fickle and variable sky, an atmosphere alternately very moist and very dry, very misty and very clear, very hot and very cold, and a temperature so changeable, that in the same day you will have spring, summer, autumn, and winter, Norwegian frost and an African sun. Figure to yourself these, and you will have a concise physical sketch of the United States,

Chapter III

General Cotifiguration. TO conceive properly the general construction of this vast country, we must acquire a more par ticular knowledge of the chain of mountains, that forms it's predominant feature. This chain begins in Lower Canada, at the mouth of the river St. Lawrence, on it's southern bank, where it's capes are called by seamen Mounts Notre-Dame and Magdalen. As it proceeds up the river it gradually diverges from ir, and separating the waters of it's basin toward the north-west from those of New Brunswic, Nova Scotia, and the district of Maine * to the south-east, it traces the frontier of the United States on this side as far as New Hamp shire. There it takes a nearly southern direction, penetrating into ths interior of Vermont under the name of the Green Mountains, dividing the basin of the river Connecticut from that of lakes Champlain and George ; and after having sent off branches on that side, which repel the sources of * Maine is at present only a district of Massachusets, but it cannot be long before it is formed into a separate state.

Hudson's river on the west and north-west, it crosses this river at West Point by a very rugged chain, which has acquired the name of the High lands. At this place the chain may be said to ex perience a double interruption: in the first place being intersected by the waters j in the next be cause it has hitherto consisted of granite, while it's continuation is of sandstone. The head of this continuation proceeds higher up the western bank of Hudson's River to the group of the Kaats Kill Mountains, and a mass which furnishes the sources Of the Delaware. From this place branches off" a band of mountainous ridges, which, after having incorporated themselves with the preceding chain, extend from north-east to south-west across the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Mary land, and Virginia, increasing their distance from the sea as they proceed southward.

It is a singular fact in geography, that several of these ridges intersect at right angles the course of the largest rivers of the United States that run into the At lantic, leaving a passage for "them only through breaches, which attest, that the force of the wa ters alone has overcome the obstacle opposed to their passage. These ridges, having continued parallel to each other till they arrive at the fron tiers of Virginia and North Carolina, unite there into a knot, which I call the Alleghany Arch, be* CaQse the principal chain embraces there in a curve all it's collaterals from the east. A little farther south, but still in North Carolina, a second knot unites to the Alleghany all it's collaterals from the west*, and forms a culminating point of heads of rivers ; the great Kanhaway issuing from it toward the north, the Holston, or northern branch of the Tenessee, toward the west, and the Pedee, the Santee, and all the other rivers of the two Caro linas, toward the east.

From this knot likewise runs off to the west a ridge of mountains, which by one bifurcation to the north-west furnishes the numerous branches of the Kentucky ; and by a se cond, directly west, stretches under the name of the Cumberland mountains across the state of Tenessee ; where it divides north and south the ba fcin of the rivers Tenessee and Cumberland, till they open into the Ohio : while the proper Alleg hany chain, left almost alone, continues it's course to the south-west, and completes the boundary of the two Carolinas and Georgia, where it receives the various names of White Oak, Great Iron, Bald, and Blue Mountains. When it reaches the angle of Georgia, it changes both it's direction and name, and proceeding due west to the Missisippi, under the names of Apalachian and Cherokee * The ridges of Kentucky.

Mountains, it becomes the line of division between the basin of the Tenessee on the north, and the numerous rivers that run south through the Floridas into the Gulf of Mexico. The long continuity of this chain has obtained it the name of the Endless Mountains from the northern savages : the French and Spaniards, who first became acquainted with it in Florida, applied to it throughout it's whole extent the name of Apalachian, which was that of a tribe of savages, and is still retained by a considerable river of the country * : but the English and American geographers, who knew it in the north, have constantly given it the name of Alleghany, which I conceive to be the Indian word for Endless, as it is rendered by Evans, who appears to consider these terms as synonimous. I shall not attempt to dispute the preference, which the less sonorous name of Alleg hany has obtained over that of Apalachian ; but, for greater clearness, I shall distinguish by the name of Apalachian that branch, which, as I have observed, turns off at the angle of Georgia, and which, less steep and lofty, is divided into a number of hills and ridges, that cover the coun try as far as the Missisippi, terminating abruptly there in rugged precipices, called cliffs, which * Apalachicola, a compound word, cola being the tern* for river in the Creek language. continue from the Natchez nearly to the mouth of the Ohio.

These hills do not cross the Missisippi, the opposite bank of which is low and flat, being a marsh of fifty miles breath on a medium, from it's mouth to that of the Ohio, which is seven degrees, or 480 miles distant. There the continental forest terminates, and those steps or Savannahs begin, which extend westward to the mountains on the north of Mexico and the Stony Mountains, which, in the course of this work, I shall call the Chipiwan chain, from the name of those savages, by whom it is inhabited. From this arrangement of the land, which I have just described, arises a sort of natural division of the United States into three long parallel countries in the direction of the coast, or from north east to south-west. The first of these is the eastern, lying between the ocean and the mountains, commonly called the Atlantic coast.

Another is the western, situate between the mountains and the Missisippi, and named the western or back country. A third is that of the mountains themselves, being intermediate to the other two. All of these countries having their climate, soil, configuration, and interiour structure, marked by c peculiar characteristics, it appears to me proper, to enter into a few particulars respecting each. § I. The Atlantic Coast. The Atlantic coast, so called from the ocean that washes it's shores, and into which all it's rivers flow, extends from Canada to Florida ; it's breadth, which varies from fifty to a hundred and eighty miles, increasing as it advances to the southward. It is the original and principal part of the states that compose the Union, which are arranged in it in the following order: Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Vir ginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine This country has but little elevation throughout it's whole extent, being flattest in the southern states, as far as Maryland, and even New Jersey, and more unequal, approaching to the mountainous in the northern states, particularly in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

Long Island may be considered as a tolerably precise point of division between these two different kinds of land ; for, from this island to the north, as far as the river St. Croix*, and even to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, the shore is high, rocky, and interspersed with reefs, which are connected with the nucleus of the adjoining continent : on the contrary, proceeding from Long Island toward the south, the coast is uniformly a low shore, nearly level with the water, and entirely of sand. This sand, which announces itself a deposit of the sea, is found to a considerable distance inland, where it serves as a bed to that forest of pines, fir, and other resinous trees, of which I have spoken. As it approaches the mountains, it is mingled with a portion of clay and gravel, washed down from the neighbouring heights ; and hence results a yellowish, poor, loose soil, which predominates in the middle stripe of the southern states, in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the upper part of New Jersey, to such a degree, that these three states may be considered as vast alluvions of the rivers Potowmack, Susquehannah, Delaware, and Hudson.

Farther north, particularly in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, the country is furrowed with little mountains and chains, which roughen the surface of all New Eng land properly so called. We should be almost tempted to suppose this country a prolongation of the mountainous band, did not the granitic nature * The frontier between the United States and the Eng lish possessions in Canada. C of it's stones, and the confusion of It's ridges, distinguish it from the Alleghanies, which are formed of sandstone, and which run in a line farther west knd inland. § II. The Western Country, or basin of the Missisij>pi. The country to the west of the Alleghany mountains may be termed with propriety the basin of the Missisippi, as almost all the streams that irrigate it pour their waters directly or indirectly into this river.

This basin is bounded on the east by the Alleghanies ; on the west by the Missi sippi ■, on the north by lakes Michigan, Erie, and Ontario ; and lastly on the south by the Floridas. It is to be observed, that toward the south, in western Georgia, most of the rivers run into the Gulf of Mexico, and seem to form a distinct country ; but the little extent this division would have, compared with the others, and the analogy of it's climate, it's produce, and even it's future rela tions, induce me to include in the western or Mis sisippi division all the country west of the Apakr chicola, which I consider as the natural boundary of the Atlantic coast inland and to the south-west. The states contained in the basin of the Missi sippi are western Geor ia, Tenessee, Kentucky, the great district north of the Ohio, called the NorthwesternTerritory,and some of the westparts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York.