The Columbian informer, or, Cheshire journal — Keene, N.H., 1793-08-14 00:00:00, page 1

©qqqoOoGkx^O&O. >O°O0&O<
J({^or<cal.
An account ^ certain Englife frrefeb, who 'in
tie year 1569, making a voyage to the
Bast-Indies, mere cafi away, and wrecked
u^on an uninhabited, Island, Oc.
[Concluded from our lafl.]
L^EING now very old, and hh fight
de&yirg, he gave his habitation and fur
niture that ^s left, to his cldcll son after
his decease ; mads him King and Gover
nor of the jell : and delivered to him the
hiftory of these tran^licns written with
his own hand, commanding him to keep
it : and if any Grangers fhculd come
hither by any accident to let them fee it,
^nd take a copy of it also if they pleased,
that the name of his people miglfi i.ofb
loft from eff the earth.
[No. 20. ofVoL. I.]
.It happened in the year 1667, Cornel
ius Van Sicenen, Capt. of a .Duch
fbip, called the Amsterdam, was driven
by foul weather to this iiland; where he
found the polterity of Mr. Pine, speaking
good English, and amounting as it'u sup
posed to ten or twelve thousand persons.
The narrative, from which this account
is taken, was given by Mr. Line's grand
foe to the Duell Captain. Printed in
London, licensed June 27, 1668.
^<THE R EADER? ,
.1 havSgiven the foregoing narrative in
the wc^ds I received it, and must leave to
the reatyr to determine whether it is to, be
"£r^£^ '' ar?re fiction,, or^x Laxir.^ .1
^0 .daiiou in truOT— — *F6r the former 0-
pinned it may be very pertinently afced,
Hew tames it that this difeovery being
made public in the year 1668, should not
have been prosecuted since ? can we fup
poft that 12000 Englishmen, fettled in a
part of the world where the greatest advan
tages from new difeoveries might be ex
pected, were not worth looking after ? is
jit to be imagined that the government
could have nerfded a difeovery of so
much importance to the nation, if they
had believed the account.
To this it may be anf•,ed, that at the
time this was published there was a great
mifuaderftanding between the English and
the Dutch, the firft war being then butjuft
concluded, and this might dispose the for
mer to give no credit to an account receiv
ed from the latter, and not to enquire into
•pr avail themselves of advantages that must
come to them through the hands of their
enemies. And if the present mifunder
flanding encouraged i^ch resolutions, the
war which afterwards broke out between
the two nations must confirm them. As
for the Dutch, they had r.o reason to pursue
a scheme where much was to be hazarded
and nothing gained, for if they had com
pleated the difeovery, the advantage would
result to the English only.
But whether this story be founded in
truth or fiction, it is certainly probable
almost to a degree of affirmation that their
arj:in some parts of the world, now to us
unknown, English fcttlements formed by
persons ship wrecked and since continued
by their descendants. To prove this we
we will confider what circumstances arc ne
cessary to produce foch a settlement and to
keep it unknown to us, and then, how
probable it is that these circumstances
have often, or at least once, concurred.
The circumstances required to found
such a settlement are no more than these;
that some English men and women have
been shipwrecked in some part of the world
that hath no communication with the parts
known to us; where thev have found all
natural means of fulfilling themselves.
To keep this Settlement unknown to us,
it is only requisite that such country does
not produceall the necessaries for Dip
ping, of which we will only reckon iron,
Columbian Informer;
Or, CHESHIRE JOURNAL.
Printed and Published by HENRY BLAKE, UCO. in KEENE; NE%- HAMps h lß £.
cordage, pitch, and the loadftoce,and this
firft requisition is only .to be extended
during thelives of the firft settlers, for
their aefeendant being natives of the land,
and unacquainted with navigation, would
certainly not aa^ipt to'remove from their'
own country.
Now if we consider, whilst the foirit of
adventuring prevailed in England at the
end of the 15th, and the begiquiog of the
j 6 h centuries, how many mips with fam
ilies on board, to fettle they knew no:
where,were fitted out from England for all
parts of the world, many cf whem were
never afterwards heard of; can we suppose
that noneef these have been drove by
florins or carried by curiosity or ignorance,
co places unknown to us, where the crew;
and passengers, or some of them of both
sexes have been able to fuefift, but not'
co recover a communication with their
own country ? The probabilities of this
happening are so many, they almoil a
mount to a proof that it has happened.
• I will illullrate this by an undoubted
fid. Alexander Selkirk, master of the
Cinque Ports Galley, an English priya
teer, having some difference with his Cap
tain, went alhore on the island of Juan
Fernandez in the South Sea, in the year
.1704., where he remained until the be
•ginning gs the year 1709, when he was dis
covered by the Duke and Dutchefs, two
English privateers. He had then worn
out all his English clothes, and had an en
tire suit made by himfelf of goat-ficins : he
had also a good house, and had furnilhed
Ihimfelf with all themecelfnics cf life, and
lived as comfortable as a folicary man could
/!? .t- _____ — ——= ^ ___#__—, /^~
The island of Jean Fernandez lies in so
great a trad of open sea, and so out of the
way of all the usual paflages of ships, that
had it not been discovered by accident, it
might have been unknown at this day ; es
pecially as it has been observed, that
though its filiation is now pretty well as
certained, it is very difficult for those who
look for it to find it. Now let ps suppose
that Selkirk had been left their with two
or three women by the firft discoveries,
and that they had never returned to make
their report, the next difeoveries (at any
considerable distance of time) would have
found this island peopled in the fame man
ner as the isle of Pines.
Another circumstance in favour of this
position we have of the men, women and
children left on the island cf Roanoak in
Virginia in 1587, by Capt. John White,
being upwards of a hundred fouls who
were all loft and neither Chrillian nor In
dian to this day could give an account
what became of them. If such a number of
people had been destroyed by the savages
fomeqf the Indians must have known it,
and would have given an account thereof
to those Englishmen who afterwards went
in search of them, Is it then impoffibie that
these distressed people,urged on by ftarvipg
necessity, may have travelled so far to the
Weft in this vast wilderness, as to,wan
der out of their knowledge and be loft, rnd
may have fettled upon a spot of ground
where no chriftian hath ever yet set his foot
- It is so far from being impossible, that
it is highly probable the case may be
fo,that they may have now become a great
nation, and by some accident or other may
in time be difeovered.
ORIGINAL MISCELLANY.,
Fer the Columbian Informer, %.
Meffis. Printers,
I AGREE with your frjend the Cen
sor, that tailing and Jeanderf are bad prac
tices ; but how he finds the Talker's
plan pregnant with either of those evils or
their confequences,l am at a loss to disco
ver.—A speculative mind must be employ,
ed, witness himfelf, and even the retailer
of scandal may with as much propriety
W E.J) N ESDA Y, Au oust 14, 1793.
call the Censor a talker, and an abusive
one too as the profeffional tatler—confi
dering then in this place, that human na
tr°ei§ truly imperfect, and tinged very
ifaly indeed with that cf divine, we
ooght not to exped a general propriety of
cordial. But fiow docs the Talker "err ?
he aims not at abuse, he only gives it as
h;s opinion, that a free converfapon about
0„ friends and others, hired us how to
extenuate their worth in society, and has
a tendency to promote a reformation,
whenever an individual hears of his im
proper conduct ;—in this yay may be had
the opinions of the unprejudiced and im
partial ; and if this tends to expose error,
it it creates a power within us to know
ovrfelvcs, and arms us with caution in cur
future condud, it mod have a tendency to
extirpate every species of mal-conduft,
ard be an incentive towards piety and vir
tu?, why fi;ould the Censor confide, it a
curfaand so hellish, devi|ifl; and damned,
as his remarks teftify.
To obflruQ the sentiments cf the hu
man mind would be to debar us of the ra
tional judgment of di^intereGed men—
we mould not reap any advantage from
oar being intelligent beings, but be in a
iHte of flupor, like the unpolished dia
mond in the quarry. The Censor would
have the faculties to lay uncultivated, un
pplifhed; and wo. d allow us to plunge
ourselves into the abyss of futurity, with
out admonition, counsel cr advice ; for if
a hint ia dropped, and perhaps delicacy
forbids more, and even that hint made to
a third person, that the &&" c *°' may
gre to:i P l '"
<!• sooty it by this <;^B*fflfll,
dear: onv to techrm a wanderer from
virtue by hrvefy h i m cf either ^fe pre
"T'=T^> mould be attemp
ted fach, b, the Censor, (applying this
tothe essay ,gned the Talkrr) would be
ftigmatizeqaTATLEß —What offence
the Talker has given the Censor, that he
on the occa^on scatters about his round
an d grape fyt at him in so many direc
tions, yet remains a myfiery.— Perhaps
the Censor may fear when he gets to be a
pffifal charaaer, that a Talker may
call his practical abilities in queflion, and
therefore wishes to make us believe even
truths are not to be told,—l make bold to
fay, on the principles laid down by the
Censor, that the Talker never vindicated
tabling, for upon his own plan a tatler is
eUeemed by him as in reality a liar—this
imputation he cannot support againff the
|Talker ; and let me ask him, if an obfeure
Dodor fr.mld, fiom inattention or igno
rance, adminider to his patients Sal Nit.
for Sal Glaub, or Cahmd izfcad of Cream
of Tartar, would it not be necessary, nay
expedient, to fay it is dangerous to employ
him ; and this too, without being account
ed a tatler ? It is on this ground the Talk
e?, to my mean ideas, conveyed his senti
ments on talking. There are very few
who will bear being told of their defers,
in a prompt way; ages long ago found
fable necessary, in which they lashed the
imperfections of mankind, and thereby
wrought wonders—they destroyed the
baneful effects of partiality, and introdu
ced to the mind proper, ideas of right
and wrong —by this means every one ex
amined himfelf, and it had the good effed
of producing reformations. But of late
ages fable loft its force, and therefore it
has been necessary to introduce a more
close way towards a reform, which the
Talker has made a system, ifet yet contro
verted by de Censor. And while man- ;
kind are ptfrffed of honor, while they are
virtuous in their dealings, the tongue of ;
calumny, and reproach, may like the I
“ adder's," dart their venom in vain:
But whenever a departure from the prin
ciples of virtue, or any ad of profcffionalr
ignorance, leads a man to do an aft hurt-a
ful to his neighbor, that man ought to be .
;known—fitch information is ufeful to so- ^
With refped to the French troops, they
are at this moment very quiet,
Their difpefitions appear to be made for
the defer, five, without desire tpitry a new
attack on the troops of the allied powers.
A war of posts, is however, unremittingly
ptirfued ; and little Ikirmilhes keep the
soldiery on both sides in constant motion.
• The riches ci, of the Netherlands, some
time since taken by the French ; face evacua
ted. It lies on the Senne, 22 miles S. of
Antwerp, 26 S. E. of Ghent, 148 N. by^
of Paris, and 172 E. of London.
NETHERLANDS.
B R USSEL S,* May 20.
The formidable preparations, made by
the Allied Armies, announce, that several cf
the enemy's frontier places will be attack
ed at one and the fame time. The for
trefs of Conde, hemmed in on all £des,
will be besieged, formally, and the tren
ches opened in a few days.
The Archduke Charles, impatient to
gather new laurels, will quit this residence
to-morrow, to affiftin the military opera
tions. To pufo the operations more vi°c
roufly, and at the fame time relieve ihe
troops who have been so much harraffed,
a considerable number of Pioneers are to
join the army, to confrud the works usual
in sieges. The contingent of the province
of Brabant, amounts to 8000.
AUSTRIAN FL ANDERS.I
OSTEND, May 20. /
The English army corftantly receives
new reinforcements. Yeflerday arrived
in this port, from London, ,m # s&F
ihips, havi,g or, board troops, hotter ar-
AteßtyßLThis r<infcreme£2L2J
.^iffityi&c^tyfofy^tyty^^
few Ito.
^^^^
evacuated by them—io miles W. Bru^'
N. E. of Dunkirk, and 60 N. 0% of&tfls.
GERMANY.
VIENN A, May zo.
In compliance with a written billet frera
his Imperial M jefty, all the battalions
now in this capital, and belonging to the
Corps of Referve,will march immediately.
The cause es this speedy march is attri
buted to the formidable movements cf the
French, who colled their forces at Stratf
bourg, and in Bfifgau, and threaten to
invade Anterior Austria.
ciety, and is not to be accounted tailing
or scandal ; nor is it criminal to converse
on the fubje&.
A miilaken set out of the Censor, has
led him on in a blind path, so far as his
remarks refped the Talker, and must I
think, difeover him to be very much in
the vocative. The Censor is again advi
sed to study the Talker, and he will find
our real follies and defeats aie to be con
sidered in society, 'and that it is to cur
benefit they should be so ; for by this
means our imperfections come to the
knowledge of our friends who can take
the liberty to be free with us, and may be
the means of working that reformation
which deceit would varnish over.
ZENEX.
S P. 4 I N.
CA DI Z, May 7.
THERE are now upon the French
frontier and in Frarce, an army, inclu
ding militia, of 130,000 men. To pro
vide for this army government is much
perplexed, from the scarcity cf provificss.
J^orec^TL ^TbieUiffTice.
[Whole No. 20.]