troper for these creatures, Their cattle have a kind of long lack hair upon them, so fine, that, with a little mixture, it is thought by some capable of being manufactured into hats, cloathing, &c. Horses are also bred here, very good both for the saddle and draught, and so cheap, that one of them may be purchased for any trifle that is brought from Europe.

* The wild animals found in this country are, the panther, bear, catamountain, stag, goat, hare, rabbit, beaver, otter, fox, racoon, and squirrel. The rivers abound with snakes, and alligators. Birds are here in great plenty, such as partridges, jays, pigeons, turtle-doves, thrushes, crows, hawks, herons, cranes, geese, ducks; and an infinite number of others, some of which have their plumage most elegantly variegated.'

On the whole,'this is an agreeable picture; but we doubt it is a flattering one. Could the Author have assured us, on his own knowlege, that it is as true as it is a pleasing account, it would have been the more satisfactory: but as he is only a compiler, from the reports of other men, it is not his fault if we are deceived. We come now to his description of the native inhabitants, the natural proprietors, of this new acquired appendage to the British empire in America.

* The native Indians of Florida,' fays he, * are of an olive complection j their bodies are robust, and finely proportioned ; both sexes go naked, excepting that they fasten a piece of deerskin about their middle. They stain their slein with the juice pf plants. Their hair is black and long, and they have a method of twisting and twirling it about their heads, so as to make it look very graceful and becoming. The weapons which they make use of are bows and arrows, and those they manage with great dexterity ; the strings of their bows are made of the sinews of stags, and they arm the ends of their arrows with the teeth of fishes, or with stones sharpened. The women are very handsome and well-shaped, and withal so active, that they will swim across broad rivers with their children on their backs, Or climb, with surprizing swiftness, to the tops of the highest

* In religion, they are bigotted idolaters, worshipping the fun and moon, and bearing an extreme aversion to all Christians ; which indeed is not to be wondered at, since the horrid cruelties exercised by the Spaniards upon the natives of the adjacent island of Cuba, and other places, even to extirpation, could not fail to excite the utmost abhorrence and dread

. of them in those savages, instead of recommending to them the purity of Christianity.

* The Spaniards, according to their usual custom, charge 1.. these these people with many vices, in order to cast as fair a colour as they can over their inhuman behaviour to the Indians, both of this and other regions, whom they first butchered, and then represented as savage barbarians, in order to palliate the crime, and in some degree apologize for such proceedings, as they knew must appear shocking in the eyes of the more civilized nations of Europe. In the present case, it must nevertheless be allowed, that, from the accounts of all who have had any dealings with them, they are noted for a bold, subtile, and deceitful people. • .

* The government of the Floridans is in the hands of many petty Kings, or Chiefs, who are called Cafliques. They are generally at variance, and carry on war against each other: but war is not waged among them in an open manner; on the contrary, they generally make use of surprize or stratagem, exercising great cruelty upon such as they take prisoners, slaying the males, and scalping them. They nevertheless spare the weaker sex, and the children, whom they carry oft" with them, and carefully educate. When they have obtained a victory, they, at their return home, call together all their friends, and feast three days and nights, spending the time in singing and dancing. In their warlike expeditions, they carry with them corn, honey, and maize, sometimes fish dried in the fun. But when these fail, they will feed Upon even the foulest things.

' The Chief marches at their head a.s they arc ranged for battle, carrying a club in one hand, and a bow and arrows in the other, his quiver hanging at his back; the rest follow tumultuously, with the fame arms. They make their attacks with horrible bellowing and clamours, not unlike the war-hoop of the Indians of the Six Nations.'

• Mr. Roberts proceeds in his account of the Floridan Indians ; describing their behavior at their public consultations i their Police, such as it is; their marriages; the customs observed at the funerals of their Kings; concluding with a brief mention of rheir priests, or rather conjurors. But ;is these are particulars now pretty generally known, (as there is no remarkable difrerejice in the manners and customs of the various nations or tribes of North American Indians) we pass them over; referring such os our Readers as may chance to want information on these heads, to the work before us.

Our compiler next proceeds to give a geographical account of this country; and then we come to the most entertaining part of the work; viz. his account of the several expeditions made to Florida, by the Spaniards, French and Ehg'ifh ; from the £rst discovery of the country, to the present times; in which .. . arc are Included the expeditions and descents of John Ponce dc Leon, Luke Vasquez of Aylon, Pamphilo Narvaez, Ferdinand de Soto, Rene Landoniere, Dominique de Gourgues, Sir Francis Drake, Capt. Davis, Colonel Moore, Capt. Henryr Jennings, M. de Chateaugues, and the ever-memorable and foV ever infamous one of General Oglethorpe, against St. Augustine. He concludes with a letter from Captain Thomas Robinson t<j George Lookup Esq; containing genuine observations made by the Captain on the country of Florida, which he visited in the year 1754. The whole is illustrated with maps, plans, views, C3Y. for the accuracy of which, Mr. Jefferys fays, in his preface, be is considerably indebted to his friends, who furnished him with a considerable number of original Spanish and French charts, sound on board several different prize-vessels belonging to those nations.

^

A short Discourse on the Study os the Scriptures. Delivered to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Cleveland, at the Visitation held in the Tear 1763. Bf Francis Blackburne, M. A. Archdeacon of Cleveland. 8vo. 6 d. Hinxman.

IN this plain, but sensible Discourse, the pious Archdeacon (who, by the bye, appears to be no bigot in regard to establishments and systems) strongly exhorts his reverend brethren to a careful and constant study of the Holy Scriptures: for, as he justly observes, * No church has, nor does any protestant church pretend to have, the power of prescribing forms and confessions of faith to another church, nor even to the members of its own communion, farther than such forms are proved to be in perfect agreement with the Word of God. That is the common measure for all. And if a man has no skill in the fort of test by which all doctrines ought to be tried, he can never properly support or defend what he teaches or profesies.'—After exploding the allegorical and myslical interpretations of Scripture, which were formerly too much in use, he proceeds * to mention a few of the most important and indispensible preparatives for the province of instructing the ignorant, supporting the weak, and bunging back those who are out of the way, by a proper application of the Word of God.' —The preparatives here recommended are the following. ~V

' 1. A careful study of the Scriptures in the original languages in which they were written.

' 2. A competent acquaintance with the principles, manners, and popular customs of the Jewijh and Heathen world,

particularly

particularly at the time when the gospel was preached to them by our Saviour and his Apostles.

* 3. An attentive regard to the Whole of God's dispensation, from the fall of man to the accomplishment of his restoration in Chri/?.'—Under this head he justly observes, ' that, after all the most able and ingenious commentators have done, the Scriptures arc the best explainers of themselves, and that they seldom fail, in some passages, to clear up or account for what may appear difficult, dark, and embarrassed in others.'-— Our present translation, however, he admits, ' is faulty in many respects, and seems to call upon those in authority for a careful and accurate revision.' This, if properly executed, would be of much more avail, in our opinion, towards removing objections, and clearing up difficulties, than the whole multitude of Expositions and Itlttjlrations^ wherewith the press hath been of late, and still continues to be, so superabundantly loaded.*

• As some of oar Readers may possibly expect from ns an account of the numerous weekly publications of this sort; we are glad to have the talk taken off our hands, by no less a Reviewer than a worthy Dignitary of the Church. For at p. az, 23, of the Discourse now before us, the Archdeacon having hinted at the defects of interpreters in general, adds,—' This reminds me just to mention the great number* of Attmttations and Commentaries on the Scriptures, which have been published of lat: years, beyond the example of former times. What these may do for the edification of the Peop'e, I shall not say: hut 1 apprehend they will hardly permit the faithful Dispenser os the Word to be less diligent and accurate in his endeavours to find out the true sense of the sacred text, than heretofore. One cannot presume much before-hand in savour of such of these Compilations as are published with a merely lucrative view, as many of them certainly are. Perhaps the greater part of them would hardly stand the test of an intimate examination. Many of them follow the common track, without the least conception whether it be right or wrong ; often repeating, in their own terms, what has been much better expressed before. Marks of haste, and a superficial acquaintance with their subject, And an attachment to current system?, are common to most of them. And the sew who leave the beaten road, are too apt to follow those who deal in paradoxes and ill-grounded con-« lectures; who, of all others, are least fit to be trusted in this province, having previously espoused some hypothesis of their own, to which they are for making all things bend.'

The above extract so fully expresses our own opinion of the matter of which it treats, that we hope for the excuse of our Readers, if (in the multiplicity of other publication.) we should happen not to resume the subject of our tvteily Anntiators upon The Book; which was meant, indeed, to fumidi food for the Souls of Men, in general; but, surely, not for the Bodies of those,, who stile themselves dutbors, in particular.

".'* The

The last sort of preparation, mentioned by our Author, a* equally indispensable with any other, towards a right understanding of the Word of God, is,

• 4. The Preparation of the Heart.'—Which he explains by an earnest desire to learn the Will of God, as well for the guidance and direction of our own conversation, as for the information of others.'—For, as he goes on, * What wonder the sacred oracles should be obscure, difficult, and unintelligible tohim, whose mind a unimpressed with a sense of heavenly

things ?'

P.

Observation! on the Charter and Conduit of the Society for the Pro~ pagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts ~ Designed to shew their Non-conformity to each other. With Remarks on the Mijlakes of East jfptborp, M. A. Missionary at Cambridge, in quoting and representing the sense of said Charter, &c. By Jonathan Mayhew, D. D. Pastor of the West-Church in Boston. 8vo» 2 s. 6 d. sewed. Nicoll.

WE have here an indictment, at the bar of the Public,, of a venerable Society, for a violation of their charter, and a misapplication of the money they have been authorized to> collect, from the charity and benevolence of the inhabitants of. England. The Author asserts, and endeavours to prove, that the greatest part of the money collected, has been applied, not to propagate the GospeL amongst unbelievers^-not (as he expresses it) to christianize Infidels, but to episcopize the Presbyterians and Quakers of New-England, who humbly presume that they are already Christians, and that they had the Gospel propagated amongst them before the Society had a being. We wish, and hope, that the Society may- be able to give a satisfactory answer to a charge, which is, like the Devil's cannon-ball in Milton, " of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home," —lest the world should begin to suspect, that instead of valuing Episcopacy only as a buttress to Christianity, they value Christianity only as heing the most reputable support of Episcopacy. How far the propagation of the Church of OW-England in New-England may be fairly construed into a propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts, and how far the converting Presbyterians to Episcopacy may be understood as the fame thing with converting Infidels to Christianity, we cannot take Upon us to determine : but as it belongs to our province to do impartial justice to every Author's spirit and meaning, we shall quote one whole section, as a specimen,, for the information and satisfaction or 1 .. . ..: . out