late Armament from France, which may prove fo fatal to us, if not counterwrought by a proper Reinforcement from England, might, in all Probability, have been prevented.

What shall I fay to the giving up Cape-Breton? Had we been fuffered to keep that important Place, it might have prevented the prefent American War, by breaking, in a good Measure, the Chain which the French have formed between Canada and Louisiana. Certainly, as it was an American Conqueft, it ought in Juftice, and more efpecially in Policy, to have been left to America. And if all the Powers of Europe cannot, or will not make Head against France on the European Continent, why muft America, a poor infant Settlement of but about a Century or two's ftanding be the Sacrifice? Had we kept the Ifland of Cape-Breton, it would have, been a good Step towards driving the French intirely out of America; and, it is much to be feared, we fhall never have any folid Peace till that is done. In which Cafe, we had been in Condition to have lent our Mother Country incredible Affiftance in a Time of War; whereas, now, by being thus reduced again into Bondage, we stand in Need of Affistance from her. Louifburg is the Dunkirk of America.

I come now to an Article of much Folly and Guilt I mean no other than our Management of the Indians. Thefe, we should have endeavoured, no doubt by all poffible Means, to have gained over to, and fecured in our Intereft, in Oppofition to those in the Intereft of France and Spain. This fhould have been attempted by all poffible Application to their Minds and their Bodies We should have endeavoured to have given them just Notions of Life, natural, civil, and religious; and fhewn them the Difference between the Friendship, the Service, and the Government of the English, and of the French and Spaniards. Where Realon had

failed

failed us, I mean where we had found the Indians incapable of the Convictions of Reason, we should have had Recourse to fuch other Confiderations as are immediate and palpable; and fuch as, confidering them as mere Animals only, they could not but have been fenfible to.

After gaining over as many of the Adults as poffible into our Intereft, we should have been particularly attentive to the Education of their Children: In order to have worn out the Race of the wild Indians, we fhould have taught them our Language, and the first Principles of our Learning, natural, civil, and religious; initiated them into the mechanical Trades, and fhewn them the Conveniences and Accommodations of Life, in order to have drawn them off from the favage Life of their Parents; and a few of Genius felected out from each Nation among them, might have been introduced to an Acquaintance with the liberal Arts, who might have been made Inftruments to have gained others.

But there is the lefs Neceflity to enlarge upon this Head; as I have observed from time to time among the Advertisements found in the Gentleman's Magazine you fent me, a Treatife upon the Importance of gaining and preferving the Friendship of the Indians to the British Intereft; which however, I fuppofe, like multitudes of your other Books, has lain by neglected among you, as it has done among us.

Laftly, it is Pity, methinks, that a Scheme, like that obtaining among the French, was not fet on Foot here; by which an immediate Eftimate might be made of our natural, civil, and military Strength; which, more especially in a Time of War, might be of infinite Service.

I fay nothing at prefent of the Neglect with Regard to the Peopling of us more thoroughly: Tho' there is Room, it is certain, to receive, and Work enough to employ, all the fpare Hands of the Islands

of

of Great-Britain and Ireland: Nor need you have any fingle Beggar or Stroller left throughout the three Kingdoms.

Nor do I take any Notice of the Deficiencies in the forming and training our Militia, or those already fettled among us. Thefe, together with feveral other Articles natural, civil, and religious, will be the Subject of another Year's Letters, if Providence fhall permit the Continuance of the Correspondence; which, however, confidering my Age and the Troubles in view, is not, I am afraid, very probable.

Thus, Sir, I have laid before you a Specimen of our Grievances; fome of them occafioned by our own Indolence, and others by the Neglect of our Mother Country. You compaffionate us, I do not queftion, harraffed by Robbers on either Side, the Inhabitants of Canada and Louifiana, not to fay the French and Spaniards*; but, Sir, Pity alone, give me Leave to tell you, will not do. You must fend us Supplies. Veterans and Engineers are the People that we want to mix with our raw Levies, and to pit against the Veterans and Engineers of France; without a timely and powerful Supply of which, God only knows what must be the Confequence.

Adieu, dear Sir, and may Heaven avert the melancholy Appearances which now threaten us.

Make my Compliments to all our common Friends, and particularly to the Reverend Mr. and his very agreeable Family, letting him know how fincerely glad I now am, that he did not accept my preffing Invitations of fettling here, offered him when I was last in England. Since, if there are not already enow of us to repel the French, there are, however,

*It is not long fince we had Advice that the Spaniards had rebuilt the Forts of Incroachment in Georgia, which had been demolished by General Oglethorpe during his Government of that Colony; to fay nothing of their late Conduct in regard to our Settlements in the Bays of Honduras and Campeachy.

however, enow of us to fall before them, and to be enflaved by them: One or the other of which muft certainly be the Fate of all the Inhabitants of every Country, where thefe perfidious and bloody People obtain the Mastery. I am,

America,

Aug. 1, 1755.

Dear, Sir, &c.
GALLO-ANGLUS.

P. S. Don't you think me an unhappy Man? Driven out of France, as you know I first was toge ther with my Parents, in Infancy, by that hoary Ty-. rant Louis XIV. into Holland: From thence refiding fome Years in England. And now fettling, as I thought, for the laft Time, in order to spend the Remainder of my Days in these Solitudes, to have the Repofe of my old Age broken, by Men whom I am afhamed to call my Countrymen: As they are indeed no other than the common Enemies and fworn Disturbers of Mankind, refolving that no Body fhall ever have any Enjoyment of Life, till they become their Subjects; when it will be impoffible they should have any.

OBSER

OBSERVATIONS

ON

THE

STATE of AFFAIRS in 1756.

HE Time is now come in which every English

THE

man expects to be informed of the National Affairs, and in which he has a Right to have that Expectation gratified. For whatever may be urged by Ministers, or those whom Vanity or Interest make the Followers of Minifters, concerning the Neceffity of Confidence in our Governors, and the Prefumption of prying with profane Eyes into the Receffes of Policy, it is evident, that this Reverence can be claimed only by Counfels yet unexecuted, and Projects fufpended in Deliberation. But when a Defign has ended in Miscarriage or Succefs, when every Eye and every Ear is Witness to general Discontent, or general Satisfaction, it is then a proper Time to difintangle Confufion, and illustrate Obscurity, to fhew by what Causes every Event was produced, and in what Effects it is likely to terminate: To lay down with diftinct Particularity what Rumour always huddles in general Exclamations, or perplexes by undigefted Narratives; to fhew whence Happiness or Calamity is derived, and whence it may be expected; and honestly to lay before the People what Inquiry can gather of the Paft, and Conjecture can estimate of the Future.

The general Subject of the present War is fufficiently known. It is allowed on both Sides, that VOL. III. Hoftilities

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