that I need not make any further apology. I do not find that any persons this way have at all mistaken the design of the Apologue, and I hope it has had some good effect. Such a manner of treating the subject was judged more effectual than a long, dry, sober dissertation, pointing out the absurdity and insufficiency of the Constitution.* It has been rejected by a very large majority in Portsmouth: but one person only spoke in favour of it, and but two voted for it. If it meets with the same fate in other places, as I sincerely wish it may, it will depend on you to be transmitted to posterity as a monument, among many others, of the wisdom, learning, and consistency of the present age.

Since I wrote last, I have picked up duplicates of two of those Indian Treaties, which were annexed to Gyles's Memoirs, viz., those of 1726 and 1749, which I will give you when you come here. There are more of those Treaties and Conferences in print, and I guess may be found in Boston, if enquired for. I thank you for the sketch you sent me of Dr. Finley's Life and Character. You mention President Davies's Life being in print: if you mean the account prefixed by Mr. Bostwick to the sermon on King George 2d, I have it. If there be any other, I should be glad to know it. Your intention of assisting in the compilation of a Biographical Dictionary is exceeding kind. I should be glad to know whom you have mentioned the matter to that may be likely to remember it. For I must repeat my wish (not that you, for you have forbid me, but), that some other person of more leisure and greater opportunities than myself would undertake to bring the design to perfection; for circumstanced as I am now, and I see no prospect of a change for the better, it might as well be expected that a snail should quit her shell and soar with the eagle as that I should bring to pass a thing of such magnitude and variety. I

* See Farmer's Belknap's New Hampshire, p. 389. — Eds.

will, however, do what very little falls within the compass of my ability, in hope that it may be of use to some other person who may bring the plan to maturity. I do think that something very clever might be done. There have been some very worthy characters, some very bad, and some very odd, and all of them together would form such a group as would afford both instruction and amusement. I would extend the limits of the plan through the whole Continent and Islands, and as far back into antiquity as Manco Capac. I would comprehend the discoverers and first navigators, and I would seek examples of heroic virtue among the untutored savages.

There are many now living characters who must in time be admitted into the collection: it would be of use to keep a memorandum for such hints concerning them as may be of use hereafter. Some have already fallen in the course of this war, who must be remembered with honour. When you come here, which I have been long wishing for, I will give you a list of names which I have collected; and, if you can furnish hints respecting the characters and actions of any of them, I shall be obliged to you. But you, have business enough on hand. I shall therefore beg your patience no longer than while I assure you that I am, with great esteem and regard,

Your obliged friend and obedient servant,

JEREMY BELKNAP.

HAZARD TO BELKNAP.

JAMAICA PLAIN, Aug. 31, 1779.

REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,-Knowing your benevolence and sensibility, I was afraid to write to you about the Pennycook Egg, lest I should hurt your feelings; but, upon second thoughts, it appeared best, for, as I was confident you would hear of what had happened, I supposed my silence would hurt them more; but, though I wrote,

I hoped I had done it in such a way as to convince you that any apology on your part was unnecessary. I find, however, by your favour of the 16th inst., that I was mistaken. Let this matter rest for the present. When we meet, we will revive it for the sake of an hearty laugh, which I know you enjoy as much as I do. When shall we meet? That question I can't answer. I intended being at Dover by this time, but have been unexpectedly prevented. New business in the post-office department has just turned up, which throws a new obstruction in my way; but, this notwithstanding, I hope to see you within thirty days. I am obliged to you for endeavouring to procure the Indian Treaties for me. They ought to be in my collection, but I do not think them sufficiently important to merit transcribing, especially when more important materials come in competition with them. The Life of Mr. Davies which I referred to, I think, was written by Dr. Gibbons, and prefixed to a London edition of his sermons which the Doctor published. I mentioned the Dictionary to Dr. Gordon, of this place; Dr. Stiles, of Newhaven; the Reverend Mr. Tennent, of Greenfield, in Connecticut; and, I think, to several gentlemen in Philadelphia: but I mentioned it,- — as you preach sermons, in hopes that it might probably take effect somewhere, but almost despairing of it at the same time. In short, the war, and the numerous avocations consequent upon it, have thrown every man's mind into such an unsettled and confused state that but few can think steadily upon any subject. They hear of useful designs, they give you all the encouragement which can be derived from the warmest approbation of your plan, they will even promise you assistance. Politics intrude, kick you and your designs out of their heads; and when you appear again, why they really forgot that the matter had been mentioned to them. I have been repeatedly served so with respect to my collection, and even public bodies act in the same manner with

individuals. Though Congress have recommended it to them to furnish me with copies of such parts of their records as I may want, they have not yet done it in any one instance, except where they have had printed copies of them, but I'have been obliged to transcribe all that I have yet collected with my own hand. I feel, at times, almost discouraged, and half resolve to drop the design, notwithstanding all that I have done. A conviction of the utility of it alone prevents. With respect to your plan, I think you will find work enough upon the Continent, without going to the Islands; and as the "Lives of the Discoverers and First Navigators are already in print," it will hardly be worth while to plague yourself with them. Could any thing certain be collected respecting any of the Indians, it will be worth inserting, but it will be extremely difficult to get such anecdotes of them as may be depended In the Records of the United Colonies, I meet with such accounts of three or four Indians as may enable me to give you the outlines of their characters in very short hints, which you may dilate at your leisure. There are doubtless many living characters, which ought in time to

on.

be included.

But I have already exceeded the little time I could allot for this letter, and must, after due respects to Mrs. Belknap, bid you adieu.

EBEN. HAZARD.

BELKNAP TO HAZARD.

DOVER, Oct. 5, 1779.

MY DEAR SIR, -I thank you much for the communications in your last packet, particularly for the letters of Mr. Moody, which will serve to correct some particulars in my account of him, and the times in which he suffered. I herewith enclose copies of Barefoot's and Mason's depositions relative to the assault and battery committed on

their venerable persons, coats, periwigs, and cravats, which all suffered in the struggle. I suppose those depositions were taken, as many others were, about the same time, to be sent to England as evidence of the mutinous and rebellious temper of the people, whereby it appears that the enemies of this country have been playing at the same game from the beginning; viz., first, to provoke the people to acts of violence, and then make those acts of violence a pretext for further violences upon them; for Mason in his freaks would threaten them with frigates to stop their trade, and soldiers to be quartered upon them to eat up their substance, and Cranfield once wrote for a ship of war to enforce his orders. It is to be observed that the two men complained of had been sued at law, among other landholders, for trespass upon lands which Mason claimed, and been ejected (as far as law could do it) from their inheritances.

If I had time, I should like to put all these particular incidents together, something in the form of Prince's Chronology: they would give a just picture of the temper and manners of the times. But, in such a work as mine, a general mention of such transactions is sufficient.

I find among my papers a geographical remark, extracted from Burnaby's Travels through North America in 1759, which perhaps may be worth your notice in your intended Geography, page 127: "The soil of New Jersey is a kind of red slate, and is so exceedingly rich that in a short time after it has been turned up, and exposed to the air and moisture, it is converted into a species of marle."

"Since my return from North America, I have met with a gentleman, Edward Wortley Montague, Esq., who had visited the Holy Land. He described the soil of that country to be similar in almost every circumstance to this of the Jerseys. He said it appeared to be of a red, slaty substance, sterile, and incapable of producing any thing worth the cultivation; but that being broken up, and ex