can they be less acceptable to thee than the sacrifices of souls more refined, offered with less simplicity and equal arrogance? Or art thou moved like a sectarian and wrought upon by a rite? Do I not at this moment conceive thee addressed through a million different channels; and may they not all direct their course to the vast ocean of thy goodness ?" But these are ejaculatory enquiries too sacred to be explained to a natural man: I leave them therefore to the solution of those distinguished ministers of light who have penetrated the arcana of God, and pursue my observations as a layman, only begging the iudulgence to turn the period of my prayer with, "Let not this weak, unknowing hand Nor deal damnation round the land I said they pray with their faces towards Mecca. Can you be persuaded that the more enlightened of these favorites of heaven are so particular in this point that they shape their position with a compass? It is true! The tomb of our savior has a variation from this point of only eighteen degrees from that of Mahomet, which is imperceptible to the eye. Should accident or ignorance, on these occasions, point a Mussulman's nose towards Jerusalem, jealousy might induce the prophet to consider it as a breach of good faith, a compliment meant to his rival, and an insult offered to his dignity, which would incense the father of gods and men to rain wrath upon the hapless subject of this error. In Italy this same equal God would pour equal wrath upon the blasphemous scoundrel, who to the prejudice of the true Messiah should pay a civility to the memory of Mahomet! Man! Thou paragon of rational inconsistency! How grateful ought thou to be to thy common Father for pitying thy weakness, suffering thy absurdities, pardoning thy pride and withholding from thee his bolts of vengeance with which thou wouldst reciprocally destroy and reciprocally damn thy whole race! The ignorance, superstitious tradition and civil and religious tyrranny, which depress the human mind here. exclude improvement of every kind consequently the same habits, customs and manners, which were observed in the east three thousand years ago, are still prevalent here. Every thing is done to the greatest possible disadvantage. The Turks are the lords of the country. They form the government and the regular military, and although they bear a very small portion to the whole number of inhabitants, every thing yields to their convenience and pleasure. They are consequently imperious, overbearing and insolent; regardless of human right and unmoved by human misery. They subsist generally by plunder of some kind; either indirectly upon the natives of the country, or directly upon the effeminate Christian powers of the Mediterranean, with some one of whom, for this sole purpose, they are perpetually at war. The government draws its support from the same sources; and, to the shame of christendom and humanity, has so established the system, that Europe and America stipulate its guarantee by treaty compact. The general principle of the Barbary Regencies is the same. Algiers has seven kings of Europe and two republics, besides the American empire, held in direct or indirect tribute. Yet I consider Algiers far from being invulnerable from the most inconsiderable of those powers. Tunis is but little less arrogant, though far less formidable. What can induce these submissions? A groveling policy in the more northern states of Europe, founded on commercial rivalship, of feeing these pirates to raise impediments to each other, and a cowardly effeminacy which has long since unmanned Spain, Italy and the Islands in their dependencies, and which has cultivated a spirit of tame submission. What should have brought America into the measure? Covetousness, jealousy of their own government and illfounded credulity in foreign intervention. Had the government of the United States persevered in their first resolutions of showing a force in this sea, we might have held our own terms: but, to save the expense of that armament, we have expended as much cash in negociation as its equipment would have cost: we have entailed on ourselves and posterity the payment of a tribute, which, with freight and insurance, will amount annually to forty thousand dollars; and we have obtained, with two of these regencies, a precarious peace. I say precarious, because all experience teaches us that no peace between nations can be permanent, which is not guaranteed by mutual interests or equal force, longer than while the imposing power is paid an equivalent to the probable advantages of breaking it. These Regencies will fabricate pretexts for accumulating their claims upon us, so long as we shall have a commerce in this sea worth these sacrifices to their avarice for its protection, and we remain apparently in a situation to give it no other more effectual protection. We have, therefore, only this choice of measures, to concede unconditionally to their demands, or to effectuate different habits of feeling among them towards us from the present, by showing a force here. We have no other alternative. It is indeed an erroneous calculation to seek to save the expense of this kind of protection by stipulating payments to a gang of fearless robbers, whose avidity for plunder is as insatiable as death; not to say any thing of the national degradation collateral to this measure. My fellow citizens then may reconcile themselves to open their purses to buy otto of roses to perfume Mussulmen's beards, or to open their gun ports to protect their purses and redeem their reputation. For my own part it grates me mortally, when I see a lazy Turk reclining at his ease upon an embroidered sopha, with one christian slave to fan away the flies, another to hand his cof fee, and a third to hold his pipe; and when 1 reflect that the sweat of my countrymen contributes to procure him this ease. It is still more grating to perceive that the Turk believes he has a right to demand this contribution, and that we, like Italians, have not fortitude to resist it. England, at present, seems to be the only nation of Europe suitably respected by these Regencies! The lion of England shows them his teeth. Algiers feigns a friendship for the United State, for the same reason that an old bawd falls violently in love with a young factor; she has got hold of his purse strings and is determined to pick his pockets. It is but justice to say of Tunis that it has a wise and an amiable prince, but he entertains no adequate ideas of the importance of the United States: he cannot discriminate between Mediterranean and transatlantic Christians. When I talk to him of the strength, independence and enterprise of my country, he leers at it: I hope he may be taught to think more justly of us. Were I to go into a detail of the insults, aggressions and barbarities which these pirates are every day practising upon their tame Christian neighbors, you would be astonished. It is a common thing among them to take masters and seamen out of the merchant vessels in their harbors, and unmercifully bastinade them for refusing any thing required of them however trifling or however extravagant. I think it would throw me into a perspiration to see an American treated in this manner. Yet, if found here, they are as subject to it under existing circumstances as any other Christians. I can fix no period to the probable time of my seclusion from society and happiness. Please to mention me agreeably to your lady; and believe me to be, my dear sir, as cordially and as sincerely as ever, Four friend and humble servant, WILLIAM EATON. EXTRACT: To Mr. PICKERING. (Private.). FROM the similarity of soil and climate between this country and some parts of the United States, it may be presumed that the date, fig and olive tree, may be successfully cultivated in our country.. : The date seeks a dry, hot bed of sand it grows where no other vegetation is seen. The pine barrens of Georgia would be peculiarly friendly to this tree. It is produced from the seed; is slow in growth, but very durable. It very much resembles in appearance the cabbage tree. The fruit is very nutritive many people upon the borders of the desert subsist almost entirely upon it. It is used as a dessert at many tables. I send a few seeds by Mr. Shaw; and could wish that an experiment might be made with them by putting them into the hands of a Georgian, who extends his ideas of agricultural improvement to the Yazoo grants, and a hundred years into futurity. The tree requires watering in the hot seasons. The fig also flourishes in a sandy soil it requires less moisture than the date. The wild fig grows spontaneously upon the islands on the coasts of Georgia; which is a sufficient proof that the true may be cultivated there. If the scion can be grafted I intend trying the experiment of introducing it to America. The healthy properties of this fruit are known to every body. When green, as well as dry, it forms an agreeable dessert. The olive requires a tenaceous soil; but the cir cumstance of the plains of this country being verdant with them, when there has not fallen a drop of rain for more that fifteen weeks, proves that the tree can subsist with very little moisture. The marly soil of the Ohio and the Mississippi, and the clay bottoms of the Southern States, would be most probably favorable to the cultivation of the olive. It is |