On its wing

Floats the Spring,

With glowing eye, and golden hair :
Dark before her Angel-form

She drives the Demon of the storm,
Like Gladness chasing Care.

Winter's gloomy night withdrawn,
Lo! the young romantick hours
Search the hill, the dale, the lawn,
To behold the SNOW-DROP white
Start to light,

And shine in FLORA's desart bowers,
Beneath the vernal dawn,
The Morning Star of Flowers!

O welcome to our Isle,
Thou Messenger of Peace!
At whose bewitching smile
The embattled tempests cease:
Emblem of Innocence and Truth!
First-born of Nature's womb,
When strong in renovated youth,
She bursts from Winter's tomb ;
Thy Parent's eye hath shed

A precious dew-drop on thine head,
Frail as a mother's tear,
Upon her infant's face,

When ardent hope to tender fear,
And anxious love, gives place.
But lo! the dew-drop falls away,
The sun salutes thee with a ray,
Warm as a mother's kiss
Upon her infant's cheek,

When the heart bounds with bliss, And joy that cannot speak!

When I meet thee by the way,
Like a pretty, sportive child,
On the winter-wasted wild,
With thy darling breeze at play,.
Opening to the radiant sky
All the sweetness of thine eye;
~Or bright with sunbeams, fresh with
showers,

O thou Fairy-Queen of flowers!
Watch thee o'er the plain advance
At the head of FLORA's dance;
Simple SNOW-DROP! then in the
All thy sister train I see :
Every brilliant bud that blows,
From the blue-bell to the rose ;
All the beauties that appear
On the bosom of the year;
All that wreathe the locks of Spring,
Summer's ardent breath perfume,
Or on the lap of Autumn bloom,

All to thee their tribute bring, Exhale their incense at thy shrine, -Their hues, their odours all are thine! For while thy humble form I view, The Muse's keen prophetick sight Brings fair Futurity to light,

And Fancy's magick makes the vision

true.

There is a Winter in my soul, The Winter of despair;

O when shall Spring its rage control ? When shall the SNOW-DROP blos

som there?

Cold gleams of comfort sometimes dart A dawn of glory on my heart,

But quickly pass away:

Thus Northern-lights the gloom adorn,
And give the promise of a morn,
That never turns to day!

-But hark! methinks I hear

A small still whisper in mine ear :
"Rash Youth! repent,
"Afflictions from above
"Are Angels, sent
"On embassies of love.

"A fiery Legion, at thy birth,
"Of chastening Woes were given,
"To pluck thy flowers of Hope from
earth,

"And plant them high "O'er yonder sky,

"Transform'd to stars,-and fix'd in heaven."

538

ARTICLE 54.

The Journal of Andrew Ellicott, late commissioner on behalf of the United States, during part of the year 1796, the years 1797, 1798,

1799, and part of the year 1800, for determining the boundary between the United States and the

;

possessions of his catholick majesty in America, containing occasional remarks on the situation, soil, rivers, natural productions, and discases of the different countries on the Ohio, Mississippi, and gulf of Mexico with six maps, comprehending the Ohio, the Mississippi from the mouth of the Ohio to the gulf of Mexico, the whole of W. Florida, and part of E. Florida. To which is added an appendix, containing all the astronomical observations made use of for determining the boundary, with many others made in different parts of the country for settling the geographical positions of some important points, with maps of the boundary on a large scale ; likewise, a great number of thermo

metrical observations made at different times and places. 1 vol. 4to. Philadelphia, Budd & Bar

tram. 1803. GEOGRAPHY has been so assiduously cultivated of late years, that every work tending to its improvement has been received with more, than common interest. In the pursuit of this science, individuals

have been tempted to brave the rigours of every clime, and their exertions have been protected by hostile governments. If then curiosity could be excited with regard to distant rivers, tracing their courses through savage deserts, with how much interest would ment of an accurate knowledge of they look forward to the attainthe Ohio and Mississippi, rivers extensive in themselves, and the only avenues to the ocean of a ferformer river, and of almost boundtile and flourishing country on the less and unknown regions on the latter? At the moment of publi

Cation, the Mississippi had acquir

ed an additional claim to the consideration of the American publick, by the recent cession of Louofficial character, possessed during isiana. Mr. Ellicott, clothed in an a period of nearly four years the tion, as would fully have gratified means of obtaining such informathe publick expectation. To show how far these advantages have been

improved will be the object of the following review.

A journal soon becomes dull, where we are neither instructed

by important facts, nor amused with interesting anecdotes or observations. The reader is soon fatigued with passing over bad roads and down shoal rivers, where he has nothing but these necessary concomitants, teazing accidents, or the state of the weather, to amuse

him. Our author left Philadelphia, Sept. 16, 1796, and till his arrival at the mouth of the Ohio, the 19th of December following, we find no information of importance, or any observation, that can, for a moment, relieve the fatigue of the journey; and at the mouth of the Ohio, there is but a very short retrospect of the fine country he had passed. The Ohio, formed by the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela, according to Mr. E., is one of the finest rivers in the United States. He says, "The bottom and sides of the river are strong from Pittsburgh down to the low country, which is generally supposed to be about eight hundred miles. The strata of stone are horizontally disposed, and principally consist of either free stone or lime stone. This horizontal disposition of the strata of stone is observable thro' a very large extent of the United States." The flat lands on the Ohio are very fertile, but, in many places, not extensive." A large proportion of the hills and mountains are unfit for agricultural purposes, being either too steep or faced with rocks. The hills and mountains on the east side of the river generally increase in magnitude, till they unite with the great ridge commonly called the Alleghany, but on the west side they decrease, till the country becomes almost a dead level." Besides the immediate necessaries of life, this country produces hemp, fruits, &c.; cordage, hard ware, glass, whiskey, and cider are manufactured; salted provisions also are made here; and the raw materials or the manufactured articles are sent to New Orleans, where they find a ready market, and on them, Mr. E. thinks, the inhabitants ought to receive bounties. To say any

thing of the general impropriety of bounties,would be needless,as the absurdity of making the Atlantick states, who have large tracts of land still uncultivated, pay for the improvement of lands upon the Ohio, is too glaring. To the tax upon whiskey,or to the want of bounties, Mr. E.attributes the "turbulent and disorganizing character," generally given to the inhabitants. Although he says he is " far from justifying any opposition by force to laws constitutionally enacted;" yet he often apologises, and thinks that unless this tax should be repealed, the worst consequences would follow. The climate is good, and generally healthy, although bilious complaints are frequent at Cincinnati and Louisville. The Ohio in summer is shallow; but in the spring, vessels, built on the river, have thence sailed loaded for the West Indies. At the end of this account is a map of the Ohio, upon a large scale, in which those parts, which are not drawn from actual survey, are left unshaded, by which means we perceive at once how far the map is to be depended upon; and future travellers may know where their labours will be of most advantage. It is much to be regretted, that this excellent method is not more generally pursued.

The second chapter commences at the mouth of the Ohio, in Lat. 37° 0' 28" N. and Long. 88° 50′ 42" W. from Greenwich. The cold was here so intense, that on the 22d of December, both the Ohio and Mississippi were completely frozen, and remained in that state four days, and the ice was not broken up in the former river till the 20 of January following. At this place were a number of Indians from the west side

of the Mississippi, to whom a Mr.

Nolan (who was with Mr. E.) spoke in several Indian languages, but which they did not understand. He "then addressed them by signs, to which they immediately replied, and conversed for some time with apparent ease and satisfaction." He informed our author, that " this curious language was used by many nations on the west side of the Mississippi, who could only be understood by each other in that way, and that it was commonly made use of in transacting their national concerns." We are referred by Mr. E. to a paper, forwarded to the American Philosophical Society, by William Dunbar, Esq. for a more particular account of this language. In this chapter commences the cfficial correspondence between Mr. Ellicott and the officers of the Spanish government, relative to the running of the boundary line, and the evacuation of the posts on the cast side of the Mississippi, above the 31° of north latitude. This correspondence, with the observons upon it, occupies a large portion of the remainder of the volume; but the publick had before been made acquainted with the motives of the Spanish government, in a much clearer and more concise manner, from the reports of the secretary of state, which are accompanied by a part of these letters, as documents. If these reports, with a few explanatory remarks, or a brief statement of the business, had been published in the text, and the letters been added in an appendix, the reader would have been saved a vast deal of unnecessary labour. The inhabitants of the ceded territory had long been secretly murmuring at the delay of their becoming American citizens, when being excited by the hasty confinement of a turbulent

and intoxicated preacher, their murmurs were converted into open. opposition to the Spanish govern ment. The Spanish officers inflamed the discontents by their violent conduct, and then shutt themselves up in the fort, to avoid the fury they had excited, and the inhabitants embodied themselves into companies of militia. By the interference of Mr. Ellicott, a com‐ promise was made, a committee was chosen by the people, who es tablished a species of neutrality,. which was sanctioned by the gov ernour, who then issued his procla mation for the election of a perma nent committee. "The election of this committee," Mr. E. says, "as was really intended on my part, put the finishing stroke to the Spanish authority and jurise diction in this district," Mr. E. and the commander of the American troops were added as members to both these committees.

Our author thinks, that nothing new would be expected from him, respecting the Mississippi; but from his peculiar advantages he might have obtained much valua ble information respecting this extensive river. By his account,. we learn, that the confluence of the Ohio with the Mississippi is nei. ther grand nor romantick. Those rivers unite their waters in a swamp from 36 to 45 miles wide ;: and which is several feet under water at every annual inundation,. which is complete between the last of February and the middle of May, and generally subsides dur ing the month of August. Its mean perpendicular height at Natchez is about fifty-five feet. He says, " in descending the river you meet with but little variety; a few of the sand bars and islands will give you a sample of the whole. When the water is low, you have: