have supposed, by which this perpetual waste is perpetually repaired? and do mountains receive accessions by rain, by attraction, or any other mode equal to what they evidently lose? Again, water is converted into vegetables, ve-. getables into animals, and both of these again into earth. Is this same earth reconverted into water, and by one unvaried round of mutation, each preserved in its present proportion to all eternity ?

Science, with an ardour of inquiry never before known, and a daily increase of materials, advances with hasty steps to answer these preliminary questions; but till they are solved, I incline to think that every theory is premature, and shall, therefore, remain satisfied with the safe, but humble character of AN INQUIRER.

LETTER IV.

Richmond, September 22.

I HAVE just returned, my dear S................., from an interestiug morning's ride. My object was to visit the site of the Indian town, Powhatan; which you will remember was the metropolis of the dominions of Pocahuntas' father, and, very probably, the birthplace of that celebrated princess.

The town was built on the river, about two miles below the ground now occupied by Richmond: that is, about two miles below the head of tide water. The land whereon it stood is, at present, part of a beautiful and valuable farm belonging to a gentleman by the name of William Mayo.

Aware of the slight manner in which the Indians have always construced their habi

tations, I was not at all disappointed in finding no vestige of the old town. But as I traversed the ground over which Pocahuntas had so often bounded and frolicked in the sprightly morning of her youth, I could not help recalling the principal features of her history, and heaving a sigh of mingled pity and veneration to her memory.

Good Heaven! What an eventful life was hers! To speak of nothing else, the arrival of the English in her father's dominions must have appeared (as indeed it turned out to be) a most portentous phenomenon. It is not easy for us to conceive the amazement and consternation which must have filled her mind and that of her nation at the first appearance of our countrymen. Their great ship, with all her sails spread, advancing in solemn majesty to the shore; their complexion; their dress; their language; their domestick animals; their cargo of new and

glittering wealth; and then the thunder and irresistible force of their artillery; the distant country announced by them, far beyond the great water, of which the oldest Indian had never heard; or thought, or dreamed-all this was so new; so wonderful, so tremendous, that I do seriously suppose, the personal descent of an army of Milton's celestial angels, robed in light, sporting in the bright beams of the sun and redoubling their splendour, making divine harmony with their golden harps, or playing with the bolt and chasing the rapid lightning of heaven, would excite not more astonishment in Great Britain than did the debarkation of the English among the aborigines of Virginia.

Poor Indians! Where are they now? Indeed, my dear S......., this is a truly afflicting consideration. The people here may say what they please; but, on the principles of eternal truth and justice, they have no

their beloved forefathers, once, in careless gaiety, pursued their sports and hunted their game; that every returning day found them the sole, the peaceful, the happy proprietors of this extensive and beautiful domain. Make them forget too, if you can, that in the midst of all this innocence, simplicity and bliss-the white man came; and lo!-the animated chase, the feast, the dance, the song of fearless, thoughtless joy were over; that ever since, they have been made to drink of the bitter cup of humiliation; treated like dogs; their lives, their liberties, the sport of the white men; their country and the graves of their fathers torn from them, in cruel succession: until, driven from river to river, from forest to forest, and through a period of two hundred years, rolled back, nation upon nation, they find themselves fugitives, vagrants and strangers in their own country, and look forward to the certain period when