was fo great as to render candles or lamps neceffary at noon day. The darkness in Canada was followed by fqualls of wind, fevere thunder-and in one instance by a meteor or fire ball. So ignorant were most people of this phenomenon, that many were exceffively frightened; altho it had occurred three times at least within the period of fixty five years.

Of the Northern Lights. From the earliest times, we have fome imperfect accounts of lights in the fky; and superstition has reprefented them as the forerunners of bloody wars and other calamities. Sometimes hiftorians fpeak of them as troops of men, armed and rufhing to battle. Such reprefentations are the effufions of weak and timid minds; thefe lights and all others in the atmosphere proceeding from natural caufes, are no more the harbingers of evil than a shower of rain or a blast of wind. For about three hundred years paft, our accounts of the northern lights, are tolerably correct. There was a difcontinuance of them eighty or ninety years, anterior to 1707, when a fmall light was feen by perfons in Europe. But they did not reappear, in full fplendor, till the year 1716, when they were obferved in England. Their firft appearance in America was December 11, 1719, when they were remarkably bright, and as people in general had never heard of fuch a phenomenon, they were extremely alarmed, with the apprehenfion of the approach of the final judgment. All amusements, all business, and even fleep was interrupted, for want of a little knowlege of hiftory. From 1719 to 1790, thefe lights were frequent, when they again disappeared, for a long period.

Of Difeafes among the Brutes. The brutes have at times peftilential difeafes which fweep them away in multitudes. A plague among cattle deftroyed a great part of the fpecies in Germany about the year 800. The fame happened in Italy and Germany, in 1713, among cattle and horfes. A like mortality among cattle happened in Holland and fome parts of England,

in 1751. Fortunately, no fimilar plague among useful. animals has ever happened in America; altho at times, there has been confiderable mortality among horfes and cattle. In 1514, the cats in Europe perished by a peftilential disease, as they did lately in Europe and America, in 1797. In 1763, dogs, sheeps, mules, poultry, fwine and horfes, in feveral countries of Europe, were fwept away by unusual diseases. In 1764, the blue fifh all perished or abandoned the fhores of Nantucket, where they had always been in great plenty. In 1775 the oysters at Wellfleet, on Cape Cod all perished, and have never since grown on the fame banks. 1788, the cod fish on the grand bank of Newfoundland were mostly thin and ill flavored. In 1789, the haddock, on the coaft of Norway, moftly or all died, and floating on the furface, covered many leagues of water. In 1799, the small fifh on the coaft of North Carolina fhared a like fate. At times, oysters are found to be watry, fickly and ill flavored; dogs, wolves and foxes are affected with madness-and the wild fowls perish by epidemic diseases.

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SECTION XIII.

CONTROVERSIES AND THEIR EFFECTS.

Of the Evils of Diffenfions among the Colonies. HE moft fruitful fource of public evils among the American colonies, was, the want of union and concert of measures, proceeding from their jealoufies and different views and interefts. Each colony exercised a seperate jurifdiction over à certain tract of land, and fo jealous was each of its rights, that blood was shed in defending a claim to an exclufive trade in beaver on a particular river, when millions of that animal were to be found in the unoccupied wilderness. Uncertain boundaries alfo originated numerous contro

verfies, and litigations, which excited no fmall degree of animofity among the colonies, fome of which lafted more than a hundred years. The antipathy between Rhode Island and the other colonies, on account of differences in religious and civil matters, and in morals. had fcarcely fubfided at the revolution.

Of the Effects of Diffenfions in the Defenfe of the Colonies. The ill effect of a want of union was first felt, in 1637, in the Pequot war. Three governments were to be confulted, and altho all agreed in the neceffity of reducing the Pequots, yet for want of unity of power and effort, the Connecticut forces arrived firft at the field of action, and to prevent notice of their arrival from reaching the Indians, they were obliged to attack the fort alone; and altho they fucceeded beyond ex pectation, yet it was a defperate attempt and might have been fatal to the affailants. Had the colonies been under the fame jurifdiction, the troops might have been affembled at the fame time, and acted with united force. In 1694, the commiffioners of the united colonies declared war against Ninigrate, a Narraganset chief; and their forces were entrusted to the command of Major Willard of Massachusetts, who marched into the enemy's country, but did nothing effectual, and returned on frivolous pretexts.-It was owing to the averfion of Maffachusetts to the war that the plan of the colonies was fruftrated. In 1676, during Philip's war, the colonies determined on fubduing the Narreganfets; but the people of Rhode Island, who were moft expofed, left their fettlements to be defended by the troops of the other colonies, and did not join in the attack and reduction of the fort.

Of the want of Concert in other Expeditions. The united colonies, Maffachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut, were zealously engaged in one common cause, during the war with Philip and his affociates. But the troops of each, acting often at a distance, under feparate commanders, often failed to afford affiftance to parties, forts or towns in diftrefs; for want of

a unity of councils and defigns. Many whole towns and whole companies of men would probably have been faved, if one will had directed all their operations. Capt. Lathrop and his company, who fell into an ambufcade, between Deerfield and. Hadley, and were cut to pieces, would have escaped, but for want of union and concert of measures; for two or three companies were within a few miles, marching to join them.

Of the weakness of the Confederation of 1643. Altho the union of the four infant fettlements produced very good effects, by giving them harmony of councils, and strength of action, yet it was not fufficient to prevent jealoufies, divifions, and the confequent evils. Springfield, when first fettled, was supposed to be under the jurifdiction of Connecticut, but was afterwards claimed by Maffachusetts, and until the divifional line was run, a controverfy fubfifted between the colonies on that account. But a more serious difpute arose on account of a duty which Connecticut impofed on goods, belonging to Springfield, exported from the river; which duty was applied to the maintenance of a fort at Saybrook, to protect the river fettlements, especially against the Dutch. The queftion, concerning the right to lay the duty, agitated the colonies, and when the commiffioners decided in favor of Connecticut, Maffachusetts, by way of retaliation, laid a fimilar duty on goods, paffing the fort in Boston harbor. law did not efcape the cenfure of the commiffioners, but the confederacy had no power to reftrain these differences.

This

Of the Weakness of the Confederation continued. In the year 1653, the commiffioners of the colonies took into confideration, the question of making war on the Dutch, who had driven the New Haven fettlers from the lands they had purchased on the Delaware, and burnt their fort; who had conftantly fold arms and ammunition to the favages, which expofed the colonies to extirpation; and who, on the rupture between

England and Holland, had attempted to engage the Indians in a plot to deftroy the English. The commiffioners of Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven agreed on the neceffity of a war to put a stop to fuch outrages and a dangerous confpiracy; but those of Maffachusetts oppofed it, and no arguments or powers of perfuafion availed. The legislature of Maffachusetts denied the authority of the commiffioners to declare war; alleging that each colony was a fovereignty, and could not be fubject to another fovereign power. The other colonies held this to be a direct violation of the articles of union-but the confederation was a rope of fand. The favages continued to purchase arms and ammunition of the Dutch; and by the time of Philip's war, they were well furnished and well acquainted with arms. This proved the principal caufe of that war and its horrors.

Of the fatal Effects of Difunion in 1690. On the acceffion of king William to the throne of England, a plan was formed in New England to take Canada. Commissioners from the colonies met at New York and agreed upon a plan of operations. A fleet under Sir William Phips was to fail from Boston to Quebec, and a body of troops from "Connecticut and New York was to advance by land to the lakes and Montreal. The fleet arrived before Quebec, tho late in the feafon ; but the land forces, after proceeding to the lake, were obliged to retreat for want of canoes, and provifions. Thefe articles were to be furnished by a commiffary of New York; but he failed. The colony of NewYork was distracted with factions under the ufurpation of Lefler. General Winthrop, who commanded the forces, was blamed for retreating; but was fully exculpated by a court of inqury. In truth, the plan of cooperation with the fleet was fruftrated for want of a common head or government over the colonies, which would have given union, concert and energy to the whole system of measures. There is no doubt S