even if we had the inclination. It may be found in the work of Du Pratz, who was an eminent man in the colony, from 1718 to 1734, or in the pages of Charlevoix. Passing by the battles and conspiracies of these times, and of the next nineteen years, we leave our imperfect sketch at the middle of the century, as then began a new era, the struggle of the French and British for the region beyond the Alleghanies.

In 1749, there were no other French settlements in the West, than those upon the Illinois, already referred to; that at New Orleans, including its various dependences, where, according to Vivier, were twelve hundred persons; and some small posts among the Arkansas and Alibamons.

In closing, we cannot but express a hope, that some of our Historical Societies will reprint from Thevenot the original French Journal of Marquette, from the Paris edition of 1683 (if it can be had); Hennepin's Louisiana; Joutel's Journal, (from the French if it can be found, if not, from the English); the most interesting of the Lettres Edifiantes relating to the West; and any other valuable original accounts now extant;-together with lithographic fac-similes of the map of 1656; of that of 1660, in Du Creux's work on Canada (Hist. Canadensis, a P. F. Creuxio ; Paris, 1664); of Marquette's; of Hennepin's, of 1683; of Joutel's; of Coxe's, and Charlevoix's. We would also suggest the appointment of committees to examine and report upon works of doubtful authenticity, such as Hennepin's New Discovery, Tonti's Journal, and La Hontan's Account of the Long River; thus placing, in an accessible and permanent form, what, in our pages, must soon pass out of view, even supposing our researches and hints to be of value to the historical reader.

ART. III. Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos, que hicieron por Mar los Españoles desde fines de Siglo XV., con varios Documentos inéditos concernientes á la Historia de la Marina Castellana y de los Establecimientos Españoles en Indias, coordinada é ilustrada por Don MARTIN FERNANDEZ DE NAVARRETE, Caballero de la Orden de San Juan, &c. Tom. I. VI. Madrid. 1825 - 1837. 8vo.

WE rejoice to perceive, that, notwithstanding the disastrous civil war raging in Spain, this great national work is still carried on by its learned author, and we earnestly hope it may not fail of completion. The fifth and sixth volumes relate to Spanish voyages in the Pacific, ending with that of Loaysa. We avail ourselves of the occasion to do justice to the character of Spain, in a matter deeply important to the United States.

There is no European government, which, in its relations with other civilized powers, either in Europe or America, is so loud in its professions of disinterestedness and moderation, as that of Great Britain. For twenty years, it persevered in a war of strenuous hostility against Napoleon, because he was a conqueror, and therefore dangerous to the peace and liberty of nations. Even if Napoleon carried his arms into Egypt, and away from the territory and states of Europe, still England relentlessly pursued him thither. Nay, when France had run her race, and had been thoroughly beaten and humbled by the coalesced arms of all Europe; when she had ceased to be an object of dread or suspicion to surrounding powers; and when, at such a period, she proceeded to inflict punishment, well deserved and too long delayed, on the piratical state of Algiers, and that insignificant country fell into her power by the just right of war; - Great Britain undertook to demand of her that she should abstain from holding it, made it cause of sober diplomatic remonstrance, and indulged at home in the most extravagant complaints against her, because she had presumed to make a single petty conquest in Africa. And, whenever Russia has happened to engage in war with Turkey, or any of the lesser

For notices of the first two volumes, see North American Review, Vol. XXIII. pp. 484 et seq., Vol. XXIV. pp. 265 et seq.

states around the Black Sea, the English press and the English Parliament have been thrown into a perfect ecstasy of horror at the ambitious and encroaching spirit, which (they allege) animates the councils of the Czar.

Meanwhile, in the midst of all these professions, what has been the actual conduct of Great Britain? That government has, for more than half a century, pursued a career of conquest by force of arms, on a scale of magnificence unparalleled in the history of modern nations, and scarcely surpassed by the Roman Republic. To be satisfied of this, and without reckoning the colonial establishments she has formed in the new continent of Australia, and which she has scattered all over the globe in other countries considered barbarous, like the coasts of Africa and America, and the islands of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic seas, without reckoning these, which alone constitute a vast empire in extent and resources,

to be satisfied of the ambitious career of Great Britain, we have only to advert to the fact, that, within the one hundred years last past, she has got possession of Malta and the Ionian Islands in Europe, of the Cape of Good Hope, covering a great part of Southern Africa, and of numerous kingdoms and nations in Asia, containing a population of about one hundred and thirty million inhabitants. That is to say, during the period assumed, she has made conquests at the average rate of a million and a half of souls per annum ; all these conquests, moreover, having been mere moneygetting speculations of trade.

We do not complain of this. We only state the fact. Whether it be right and just for Great Britain, or any other power, to subjugate half the world by unprovoked war; whether it be consistent and honorable to be for ever preaching abstinence, and liberality, and beneficence, and good faith in Europe, and to be for ever practising the reverse of all this in Asia; are questions we leave to the unbiassed judgment of mankind. We do not discuss them here. Nor, though Great Britain should proceed to consummate the enterprise, which it is said she has just now entered upon, of invading and dismembering Persia; though she should make her way into China, as she did into India, by asking space of land for a trading factory, and taking a great empire to supply it, by pretending commerce, and pursuing conquest; and though, by the same combination of proved and confessed fraud and force, by which she has gained one hundred and

thirty million subjects in the latter, she should gain other one hundred and thirty millions in the former; even then, we do not know that the United States have any lawful ground of umbrage at the continued march of her dominion. But we have good cause to complain, it is our right and our duty,— when the same system of universal aggrandizement is carried by her into the affairs of North America. The mischief is then brought home to our own doors, and it behoves us to look to it.

We make these remarks in no unfriendly spirit towards Great Britain, but simply for the sake of our own national rights, in the defence of which we mean that this Journal shall continue to speak out plainly and fearlessly, as it always has done; believing that nothing is gained to the cause of peace by the timid suppression of the truth.

During the whole time which has elapsed since the restoration of peaceful and (to both parties) beneficial relations between Great Britain and this country, that government has been insensibly and quietly obtaining the wrongful possession of extensive portions of the United States, namely, a part of the State of Maine, and the wide territory of Oregon. We do not propose, at the present time, to enter into a discussion of our rights in this matter. We have done this already in previous volumes; and, in regard to one of the questions at least, - the northeastern boundary, — in very ample detail. Moreover, the recent discussions in Congress of the latter question, and the unanimous resolutions of both Houses, affirming the rights of the United States, have rendered it the less necessary. And, in regard to the other, the northwestern boundary, our object at present is, not to go over that either, but only to investigate a single one of the important points involved in it, and that rather an incidental point.

This great question, also, has recently been called up in Congress, and our readers may rest assured, that it will not be suffered to go to sleep there. Our title, it is sufficient for the purpose now to observe, is founded partly on our rights by discovery, exploration, and possession. But we have other sources of title, and, more especially, the right under the Florida Treaty; by which, in consideration (among other things) of our cession to Spain of our pretensions west of the River Sabine, Spain ceded to us all her pretensions north of the forty-second parallel of latitude. We propose

to show that, independently of our own intrinsic rights, and so far as discovery or exploration could confer rights on any other power, that power was Spain, to the exclusion of Great Britain.

It has been the policy of Great Britain to depreciate the rights of Spain in this respect. That was natural, and in the ordinary course of things, for the government to do. But the injustice of the government of Great Britain towards that of Spain, in this thing, has entered into and poisoned the literature of Great Britain. Her geographers have extensively pursued the system of suppressing the names given to capes, rivers, and inlets, on the northwestern coast of America, by early Spanish navigators, and substituting the names given to the same localities by later English navigators; so that the maps convey the false implication of prior discovery on the part of the latter nation. Nor is this all. There is, in many of the English books of geography, a practice of dwelling at much length on the English voyages, and either touching slightly, or wholly omitting, those performed under the authority of Spain.

We have a most notable instance of this now before us, in a popular work, entitled "Narrative of Discovery and Adventure in the Polar Seas and Regions," by Professor Leslie, Professor Jameson, and Hugh Murray, Esquire, of Edinburgh; names which ought to be a warranty for the truth, and the whole truth. This book, the historical part of which was written by Mr. Murray, contains the following paragraph ;

"Spain, which had made the discovery of America, and from that success derived so much glory and wealth, might have been expected to take a peculiar interest in every thing connected with its farther exploration. The fact, however, appears to be, that, revelling among the rich plains and glittering treasures of Mexico and Peru, she felt little attraction towards the bleak confines of the northern pole. Only one very early voyage is mentioned, that, namely, by Gomez, with a view of discovering a shorter passage to the Molucas. He is said to have brought home a few of the natives; but no record is preserved, either of the events which attended his enterprise, or even of the coast on which he arrived. There remains of it, as has been observed, only a jest, and one so indifferent as not to be worth repeating. The chief exertions of Spain for a passage, were made from Mexico along the northwest coast of America; but these we do not propose to include in the present narrative."