the English language so badly spoken among those who hire themselves as 'helps' in families in America, as you do amongst servants in England. In the progress of refinement it was mentioned as a fact, that 'a young woman meeting lately a former fellow-servant, asked her how she liked her new place, 'Very well,' was her reply; 'Then you have nothing to complain of?' 'Nothing,' said she, 'only master and mistress talk such very bad grammar.' Their education and religious instruction have given the New Englanders so decided a cast of national character, that they are distinguished among the Americans, like the Scots among Europeans, as a moral, intelligent, enterprizing people.

Like the Americans in general, they are very fond of anniversaries, public meetings, orations, and rejoicings, by which all classes are reminded of those events which led to their independence. The term Yankee,' is, in good humour, particularly applied to them, and is said to be derived from Yankoo,' the name of a hostile tribe of Indians, who were overcome by the first settlers, to whom the vanquished chief gave the name, that it might not become extinct. It is from the true-born Yankees that the United States government

PENOBSCOT BAY.

223

look principally for the supply of a hardy intrepid race of seamen for their navy.

I met with no Indians till I reached Penobscot Bay, in the neighbourhood of which is a tribe who have cultivated lands, and are stationary the greater part of the year. Their numbers may be about two hundred and fifty; and being of the Roman Catholic religion, as are all the Indians of the adjoining British provinces, they are visited by a minister of that persuasion, from Boston, every summer. An attempt has lately been made by an association of benevolent individuals to establish a Protestant school, with a view to teach them English, and rescue them from the thraldom of a superstitious and idolatrous faith; but this laudable attempt has failed for the present, through the opposition and influence of the Catholic priest. After this minister has spent some time with the Penobscot tribe, he proceeds in his missionary excursion to visit that of Passamaquoddy, which consists of about the same number of souls, who live in a village, on a tongue of land called Point Pleasant, in the Bay of Passamaquoddy.

I visited this Indian village, on my arrival at Eastport, a small town on the boundary line of America and the British territories, and was

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INDIAN VILLAGE.

courteously received by the Catholic priest, who happened then to be resident among the Indians. He showed me a small neat chapel, where he officiated, a neat dwelling-house belonging to a chief called Saccho Beeson, and about twenty-five huts, which were very inferior and dirty in their arrangement. Near to these buildings is a log-house of about fifty feet long, where they meet to hold their 'Talk' on any public question that concerns them, and which is used also for their favourite amusement of dancing. In the course of conversation, I asked the Roman Catholic priest, whether he had any school for the instruction of the Indian children, and what he taught the Indians? His reply was, that he had no school; but showing me a manuscript copy of a prayer to the Virgin Mary, and a form called 'Confiteor,' in the Indian language, he remarked, 'These, Sir, are what we teach the Indians.' It was gratifying to find that an experienced and zealous Protestant missionary was making an effort to improve the state of this tribe, who, like that of Penobscot, were under the degrading influence of their religious creed. With a view to effect this, he had erected a school-house in the village, to afford gratuitous instruction in English, to those Indian children or adults,

who might regularly attend at the appointed school-hours. The missionary informed me that he had many scholars before the arrival of the Catholic priest, but afterwards the numbers were greatly diminished. He appeared, however, determined to persevere in his benevolent and truly Christian labours, as he was supported by the high authorities, was patronized, and received pecuniary aid from the United States government and the government of the State of Maine. The Maine Missionary Society also encouraged him, in the hope of preventing that open opposition and direct influence which had been shown against the establishment of an English school among the Penobscot Indians. His plan was, in affording instruction to the children, to give to their parents implements of husbandry, to encourage them in the cultivation of the soil; and I saw an acre of wheat which one of the chiefs had sown, on receiving the above assistance, with seed corn, that promised to reward his active industry, by a plentiful crop. These Indians, though located within the boundary line of the United States, have intercourse with those of the British province of New Brunswick, and sometimes meet them on the river Saint John, to smoke the calumet, and brighten the chain of friendship.

Q

Returning to Eastport, I took my passage in the steam-boat across the Bay of Fundy, and landed, through a protecting Providence, on the 8th of August, at Saint John, New Brunswick. This city is situated on a rocky peninsula, in latitude 45° 20′, and took its rise in the the year 1783, when the peace with America left the loyalists, who had followed the British standard, to seek an asylum in some part of the British dominions. It is stated that more than four thousand persons, men, women, and children, sailed from New York for the river Saint John, at that period. The coast was rugged, and the whole aspect of the country dreary and uninviting, as they landed on the point where the city now stands. Nothing was to be seen, but a few huts erected on the margin of a dark immense wilderness, and occasionally some of the natives, clothed principally with the skins of animals, particularly the moose-deer, which were then numerous in the forests. The situation of these emigrants was of a very trying nature, as they had to undergo every privation and suffering during the rigours of the ensuing winter. The difficulties which they encountered, in first clearing the lands, seemed for some time to be almost insurmountable; and this is generally the case with all first settlers,