Achenwall's Observations on North America

Part 1

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ACHENWALL'S OBSERVATIONS

NORTH AMERICA

1767

TRANSLATED BY

J. G. ROSENGARTEN

Reprinted from the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, January, 1903

PHILADELPHIA 1903

ACHENWALL'S OBSERVATIONS ON NORTH AMERICA, 1767.

The most complete work on the British Colonies in North America is the Summary historical and political by William Douglas, of which the second improved edition was published in London, 1760, in two 8vo. volumes. That doctor collected material for many years and was in America, and gives valuable intelligence, especially of the Colonies he visited, but his book has no system. Prof. Kalm has much that is good in his travels in North America, and often cites Franklin, but did not altogether understand what he said, and Franklin never saw Kalm's book until he came across a German translation in Hanover.

The east coast of North America, where the British Colonies lie, is generally colder than the countries on the same stretch in Europe, nor has it been observed that owing to the decay of forests and cultivation the climate is becoming noticeably milder. Almost the whole eastern coast of North America is sandy, many little islands along the coast are sand banks, thrown up gradually by the sea. The coast of Florida is sandy and unfruitful, but the interior is good land. The native Indians consist of many small nations, each with its own language, quite different from that of their neighbors. They are all of one figure as if descended from a common ancestor,--all brown in color, with straight black hair, eyes all of one color, and all beardless, and they call Europeans the bearded nation. They live in the wilds, except a few that have been gathered in villages and are partly civilized. They live on plants and by hunting, without farms or cattle, chickens, horses etc.

Before the arrival of Europeans, their important plants were Turkish corn or maize; a sort of beans; tobacco. Maize and Tobacco are found only in America, and were brought from the new world to the old. Maize and Beans they cook and use bear fat in place of butter as dressing, but no salt. Smoking tobacco is an old custom, especially at their national gatherings. These three plants they look on as a special gift of heaven. According to an old tradition, an American found a handsome young woman sitting on a hill,--who in acknowledging a deep bow, said she came from above and at the end of a year would come again to the same hill. She was there again at that time, on her right hand Maize, on her left Beans, and on her lap Tobacco, and these three she left as a present for the American. Before Europeans brought them, there were no other grain or vegetables known than maize and beans, but all like the newcomers have increased wonderfully. The Spanish historian de Solis is altogether wrong in saying that Mexico at the time of the invasion, was a populous and mighty state. The Mexicans were savages, without art or knowledge, and how could they form a great state? They had neither farming nor cattle and could not find food for a large population nor had they any means of transportation. The weapons of the savages in North America are bows and arrows, and they shoot with the teeth of wild animals. They recognize some of the principles of natural law and observe them even with their enemies. They scalp usually only the dead,--then they cut it off with a sharp weapon and keep it as a sign of victory. Sometimes the victim comes to life,--some such are in Pennsylvania, for scalping is not necessarily mortal. They fight on foot, for they have no horses. The savages living in western Pennsylvania were called by the French Iroquois. The English call them the Five Nations or the Confederate Indians,--they are united and were so long before the English settled. The Mohawks first united with another nation and others joined later. Now there are seven altogether so united. They have their regular stated meetings and their great council considers the general good. The members are known only by their different languages. They are called subjects of the King, but they are not subject to British laws, and pay no taxes, but the Colonists give them a tribute of presents. Their number does not increase. Those living near the Europeans steadily diminish in numbers and strength. Their two sexes are of a cold nature,--the mothers live alone at and after the birth of children and during the years they suckle them,--often (owing to the absence of soft food) until their young can eat meat. Small pox and rum have played sad havoc among them.

The English settlements in North America have grown much more slowly than those in the West Indies, where they came about 1640, and in twenty years had flourishing Colonies, such as Barbadoes. In North America the Colonists came sixty years before, but at the end of the 17th Century were small in number and in exports. This is due to the rich production of the Sugar Islands, the absence of Indians, and the contraband trade with Spain. The North American Colonies have in the 18th Century greatly increased in population and wealth, far beyond the West India Islands.

Franklin in a book published in 1751 showed that the native born foreigners double every 25 years, in addition is the steady emigration, and some Colonies thus double their population in 18, some in 16, and some in 14 years. This will go on as long as there is plenty of farm land, and this increases largely with the acquisition of Canada and Louisiana. In 1750 there were a million, Douglas in his book estimated that in 1760 there were 1,051,000, besides blacks and soldiers,--on that basis in 1775 there will be 2 millions, and at the close of the 18th Century, 4 millions. To attract foreigners, an Act of Parliament granted English citizenship to every Protestant after seven years' residence, a right that in England can only be obtained with great expense and trouble by a special Act of Parliament. The Certificate of the Provincial authorities costs only a few shillings and is good through all England.

Near the coast and some miles beyond, all the Middle Colonies are settled, and new improvements are extending deeper in the interior. In Pennsylvania, where the Penn family own all the land, any one who wants to improve the land, chooses a piece, pays the landlord for 100 acres 10 Pound Sterling local money, and binds himself to pay an annual rent of half a penny for each acre,--he then becomes absolute owner, and the little ground rent can never be increased. Sometimes the hunter builds a wooden hut, and the nearest neighbors in the wilderness help cut the timber, build the log hut, fill the crevices with mud, put on the roof and put in windows and doors, and in return the owner pays them with a gallon of brandy, and by a like good service in turn. Then he lays out his garden and pasture and fields, cuts out the underbrush, tops the big trees and strips the bark, so that he can sow and reap, the trees die and hurt neither land nor crops. Many hunters have thus settled the wilderness,--they are soon followed by poor Scotch or Irish who are looking for homes,--these they find in this half improved condition,--they buy from the hunters, get a patent from the Proprietors, paying the usual charge. The hunter moves off into the wilderness and goes to work again. The Scotch or Irishman completes the half finished task, builds a better house of sawed timber, uses the old log hut for a stable, later builds a house of brick and his timber house is a good barn. Scotch and Irish often sell to the Germans, of whom from 90 to 100,000 live in Pennsylvania, and prefer to put all their earnings into land and improvements. The Scotch or Irish are satisfied with a fair profit, put the capital into another farm, leaving the Germans owners of the old farms. In Pennsylvania there is no law to prevent cutting up a farm into very small holdings nor to forbid the purchase of very large bodies of land. There is no danger from either course, for there is land enough for rich and poor, and the former prefer the larger profits from trade to the small return from land. In New England, unlike Pennsylvania, a good deal of land is let to farmers, for there are many rich owners of large estates,--this is so too in the Carolinas, and in other Colonies where owners of 10 or 20 or more thousands of acres bring settlers at their own expense to improve their land. Kalm mentions similar cases in New York.

When an owner of land dies intestate, and there are many children to inherit the father's farm, it is generally taken by the eldest son, and the younger children get in money their share of its appraised value,--the eldest son gets two shares, the other children only one apiece. The father of a large family takes from the Proprietary a large tract of land, which on his death can be divided among all his children. In New England improvement of the land is made in a more regular way than in Pennsylvania,--whole towns are laid out, and as soon as sixty families agree to build a church and support a Minister and a Schoolmaster, the Provincial government gives them the required privilege, carrying with it the right to elect two deputies to the Legislature, from the grant of 6 English square miles. Then the town or village is laid out in a square, with the church in the centre. The land is divided and each works his own, leaving however the forest in common, and with the privilege of laying out another village in time. In this way new settlements grow in New England in regular order and succession,--every new village touching on an old one, and all steadily increasing in wealth and numbers. Nothing of this kind is done in Pennsylvania, where the Proprietor wants only to sell land and as much as any one wants and wherever he likes. The mistake of this was shown in the Indian wars. On the border were scattered houses and farms, which could not help one another, and they were attacked singly, plundered and destroyed, and the ruined owners with their families took refuge with the older settlements, which became burthened with their care.

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