difcredit the King's Yards: the Confequences of which must have been prejudicial to the whole Nation. Juft fo ought we to reafon in the pre"fent Cafe, and we should then foon be brought to conclude, that though peopling the Colonies, which was the laudable Motive of the Legislature, "be expedient to the Publick; abrogating the Transportation Laws, must "be equally neceffary."

The Bigotry and Tyranny of fome of our Governours, together with the great Extent of their Grants, may also be confidered among the Discouragements against the full Settlement of the Province. Most of these Gentlemen coming over with no other View than to raise their own Fortunes, iffued extravagant Patents, charged with small Quit Rents, to fuch as were able to serve there in the Affembly; and these Patentees being generally Men of Estates, have rated their Lands fo exorbitantly high, that very few poor Perfons could either purchase or lease them. Add to all these, that the New-England Planters have always been difaffected to the Dutch, nor was there, after the Surrender, any foreign Acceffion from the Netherlands. The Province being thus poorly inhabited, the Price of Labour became fo enormously enhanced, that we have been constrained to import Negroes from Africa, who are employed in all Kinds of Servitude and Trades.

English is the most prevailing Language amongst us, but not a little corrupted by the Dutch Dialect, which is still so much used in some Counties, that the Sheriffs find it difficult to obtain Perfons fufficiently acquainted with the English Tongue, to serve as Jurors in the Courts of Law.

The Manners of the People differ as well as their Language. In Suffolk and Queen's County, the first Settlers of which were either Natives of England, or the immediate Defcendants of fuch as begun the Plantations in the Eastern Colonies, their Customs are fimilar to those prevailing in the Englife Counties, from whence they originally sprang. In the City of New-York, through our Intercourse with the Europeans, we follow the London Fashions; though by the Time we adopt them, they become difufed in England. Our Affluence, during the late War, introduced a Degree of Luxury in Tables, Dress, and Furniture, with which we were before unacquainted. But still we are not fo gay a People, as our Neighbours in Boston and feveral of the Southern Colonies. The Dutch Counties, in fome Measure, follow the Example of New-York, but still retain many Modes peculiar to the Hollanders. The City of New-York confifts principally of Merchants, Shopkeepers, and Tradesmen, who fuftain the Reputation of honeft, punctual, and fair, Dealers. With Respect to Riches, there is not so great an Inequality amongst

us

us, as is common in Boston and fome other Places. Every Man of Industry and Integrity has it in his Power to live well, and many are the Instances of Perfons, who came here distressed by their Poverty, who now enjoy easy and plentiful Fortunes.

New-York is one of the moft focial Places on the Continent. The Men collect themselves into weekly.Evening Clubs. The Ladies, in Winter, are frequently entertained either at Concerts of Mufick or Assemblies, and make a very good Appearance. They are comely and dress well, and scarce any of them have distorted Shapes. Tinctured with a Dutch Education, they manage their Families with becoming Parfimony, good Providence, and fingular Neatness. The Practice of extravagant Gaming, common to the fashionable Part of the fair Sex, in fome Places, is a Vice with which my Countrywomen cannot justly be charged. There is nothing they so gene. rally neglect as Reading, and indeed all the Arts for the Improvement of the Mind, in which, I confess, we have set them the Example. They are modeft, temperate, and charitable; naturally sprightly, fenfible, and good-humoured; and, by the Helps of a more elevated Education, would poffess all the Accomplishments defirable in the Sex. Our Schools are in the lowest Order; the Instructors want Instruction, and through a long shameful Neglect of all the Arts and Sciences, our common Speech is extremely corrupt, and the Evidences of a bad Tafte, both as to Thought and Language, are visible in all our Proceedings, publick and private.

The People, both in Town and Country, are fober, industrious, and hofpitable, though intent upon Gain. The richer Sort keep very plentiful Tables, abounding with great Varieties of Flesh, Fish, Fowl, and all Kinds of Vegetables. The common Drinks are Beer, Cyder, weak Punch, and Madeira Wine. For Defert, we have Fruits in vaft Plenty, of different Kinds and various Species.

Gentlemen of Estates rarely refide in the Country, and hence few or no Experiments have yet been made in Agriculture. The Farms being large, our Husbandmen, for that Reason, have little Recourfe to Art for manuring and improving their Lands; but it is faid, that Nature has furnished us with fufficient Helps, whenever Neceffity calls us to use them. It is much owing to the Difproportion between the Number of our Inhabitants, and the vast Tracts remaining still to be settled, that we have not, as yet, entered upon scarce any other Manufactures, than fuch as are indifpenfibly neceffary for our Home Convenience. Felt-making, which is perhaps the most natural of any we could fall upon, was begun fome Years ago, and Hats E e 2

were

were exported to the Weft-Indies with great Success, till lately prohibited by an Act of Parliament.

The Inhabitants of this Colony are in general healthy and robust, taller but shorter lived than Europeans, and, both with Respect to their Minds and Bodies, arrive fooner to an Age of Maturity, Breathing a ferene, dry, Air, they are more sprightly in their natural Tempers than the People of England, and hence Inftances of Suicide are here very uncommon. The Hiftory of our Diseases belongs to a Profeffion with which I am very little acquainted. Few Physicians amongst us are eminent for their Skill. Quacks abound like Locufts in Egypt, and too many have recommended themselves to a full Practice and profitable Subsistence. This is the lefs to be wondered at, as the Profeffion is under no Kind of Regulation. Loud as the Call is, to our Shame be it remembered, we have no Law to protect the Lives of the King's Subjects, from the Malpractice of Pretenders. Any Man at his Pleasure fets up for Physician, Apothecary, and Chirurgeon. No Candidates are either examined or licensed, or even fworn to fair Practice *. The natural History of this Province would of itself furnish a small Volume, and therefore I leave this also to such, as have Capacity and Leifure to make useful Observations, in that curious and entertaining Branch of natural Philosophy.

* The Neceffity of regulating the Practice of Phyfick, and a Plan for that Purpose, were ftrongly recommended by the Authour of the

Independent Reflector, in 1753, when the City of New-York alone boafted the Honour of having above forty Gentlemen of that Faculty.

СНАР.

T

CHA P. III.

Of our TRAD E.

HE Situation of New-York, with Refpect to foreign Markets, for Reasons elsewhere affigned is to be prefered to any of our Colonies. It lies in the Center of the British Plantations on the Continent, has at all Times a short eafy Access to the Ocean, and commands almost the whole. Trade of Connecticut and New-Jersey, two fertile and well cultivated Colonies. The Projection of Cape Codd into the Atlantick, renders the Navigation from the former to Bofton, at fome Seafons, extremely perilous; and fometimes the Coasters are driven off and compelled to winter in the WeftIndies. But the Conveyance to New-York, from the Eastward through the Sound, is fhort and unexposed to such Dangers. Philadelphia receives as little Advantage from New-Jersey, as Bofton from Connecticut, because the only Rivers which roll through that Province, difembogue not many Miles from the very City of New-York. Several Attempts have been made to raise Perth Amboy into a trading Port, but hitherto it has proved to be an unfeasible Project. New-York, all Things confidered, has a much better Situation, and were it otherwise, the City is become too rich and confiderable, to be eclipsed by any other Town in its Neighbourhood.

Our Merchants are compared to a Hive of Bees, who industriously gather Honey for others---Non vobis mellificatis Apes. The Profits of our Trade center chiefly in Great-Britain, and for that Reason, methinks, among others, we ought always to receive the generous Aid and Protection of our Mother Country. In our Traffick with other Places, the Balance is almost constantly in our Favour. Our Exports to the West-Indies are Bread, Pease, Rie-meal, Indian Corn, Apples, Onions, Boards, Staves, Horfes, Sheep, Butter, Cheese, pickled Oysters, Beef, and Pork. Flour is alfo a main Article, of which there is shiped about 80,000 Barrels per Annum. To preserve the Credit of this important Branch of our Staple, we have a good Law, appointing Officers to inspect and brand every Cask before its Exportation. The Returns are chiefly Rum, Sugar, and Molaffes, except Cafh from Curacoa, and when

Mules,

Mules, from the Spanish Main, are ordered to Jamaica, and the Windward Iflands, which are generally exchanged for their natural Produce, for we receive but little Cash from our own Islands. The Balance against them would be much more in our Favour, if the Indulgence to our Sugar Colonies, did not enable them to fell their Produce at a higher Rate than either the Dutch or French Islands.

The Spaniards commonly contract for Provisions, with Merchants in this and the Colony of Pennfylania, very much to the Advantage both of the Contractors and the Publick, because the Returns are wholly in Cash. Our Wheat, Flour, Indian Corn, and Lumber fhiped to Lifbon and Madeira, balance the Madeira Wine imported here.

The Logwood Trade to the Bay of Honduras is very confiderable, and was pushed by our Merchants with great Boldness in the most dangerous Times. The Exportation of Flax Seed to Ireland is of late very much increased. Between the 9th of December 1755, and the 23d of February following, we fhiped off 12,528 Hogfheads. In Return for this Article, Linens are imported and Bills of Exchange drawn, in Favour of England, to pay for the dry Goods we purchase there. Our Logwood is remited to the English Merchants for the fame Purpose.

The Fur Trade, though very much impaired by the French Wiles and Encroachments, ought not to be paffed over in Silence *. The Building of Ofwego has conduced, more than any Thing elfe, to the Prefervation of this Trade. Peltry of all Kinds is purchased with Rum, Ammunition, Blankets, Strouds, and Wampum, or Conque-fhell Bugles. The French Fur Trade, at Albany, was carried on till the Summer 1755, by the Caghmuaga Profelytes; and in Return for their Peltry, they received Spanish Pieces of Eight, and fome other Articles which the French want to complete their Affortment of Indian Goods. For the Savages prefer the English Strouds to theirs, and the French found it their Intereft to purchase them of us, and tranfport them to the Western Indians on the Lakes Erie, Huron, and at the Streight of Mifilimakinac.

Our Importation of dry Goods from England is so vastly great, that we are obliged to betake ourselves to all poffible Arts, to make Remittances to the British Merchants. It is for this Purpose we import Cotton from St. Thomas's and Surinam; Lime-juice and Nicaragua Wood from Curacoa; and

* It is computed that formerly, we exported 150 Hogfheads of Beaver and other fine Furs per Annum, and 200 Hogfheads of Indian-dreffed

Deer-fkins, befides thofe carried from Albany into New-England. Skins undreffed are ufually fhiped to Holland.

Logwood