A. D. 1767. 469 



fand people on the Ohio. This year the application was renewed by 

 General Phineas Lyman, an officer on the American eftabliflinient, in 

 behalf of himfelf and the reft of the officers and foldiers of the feveral 

 corps of American provincial trbops difbandcd at the late peace ; and 

 alfo in behalf of 4,320 of the fubfcribers to Hazard's intended colony. 

 Their propoful was to fettle a trad of country extending 100 miles on 

 each fide of the Ohio, and 300 miles eaft from the Miflillippi, to be 

 purchafcd with the free good will of the Illinois, the Indian proprietors. 



The new provinces, being in a great meafure fettled by people trained 

 up in their early life to agriculture, and afterwards habituated to a mi- 

 litary life, would be an excellent military barrier, as well as a moft pro- 

 du61:ive agricultural terrritory, the country being of fo rich a foil, that the 

 French ufed to call it the tcnejlrial pca-ad'ifc. 



The rich produdions of this country, confifting of corn, hemp, flax, 

 filk, indigo, madder, wines, &c. being carried down the Miflillippi, 

 would plentifully fupply the province of Wefl-Florida, the merchants 

 of which muft enjoy the benefit of fhipping the produce, and iupplying 

 the propofed colony with vaft quantities of Britifh goods, the veffels 

 adapted to the navigation of the river being incapable of crofling the 

 Ocean. It was alleged, that thefe advantages would foon make Weft- 

 Florida an opulent and flouriftiing province, of great advantage to the 

 mother country, upon which it had hitherto been a heavy burthen; and 

 that the Indians, by good treatment and fair trading, would be glad of 

 the near neighbourhood of the white people. 



What may, perhaps, appear fingular, the advocate for thefe new co- 

 lonies, among other advantages to be derived from them, infifted, that 

 fuch an eftablilhment would operate as a check upon the attempts ot 

 the inhabitants of the old colonies to become independent of Great 

 Britain, by draining them of their redundant population *. 



* ' The period will doubtlifs come, when dcfcribed as a healthy, ftilile, and pleafant, coiin- 



' North- America will no longer acknowlcge try, producing wine, tobacco of a fupirior quali- 



• a depenjeiice on any part of Europe. But ty, rice, olives. Sec. ' A colony there would not, . 



• that period feeins to be fo remote, as not to • like that on the barren coail of Nova-Scotia, be 

 ' be at prefent an object of rational policy or ' nine or ten years before it could draw any fub- 



• human prevention, [andj it vs-ill be made (lill ' fillence from the ground, and require in that 



• more reniote by opuiing new fcencb of agricul- ' lime near a million ftcrling from the mother 



• ture, and widening the Tpace which the colonills ' countiy.' 



' muft firft completely occupy.' \_Condufion of He ellewherc fays, ' It would be lavifhing mo- 



Gencral layman s AIt»wrial.'\ ' ney to no purpi)re to grant annual fupplii.* 



In the prelent (late of aflairs, it may be at leaft ' merely for the fubfiftence of the colony, which 



amufmg, if not inlluiclivc, to fee the opinion of ' only enables new fettlers to build fine houfes, 



another peifon acquainted with Anitiican affairs, ' and live idly at the cxpenfe of the motiier coun- 



who, upon this oceifion, wrote a paper, never ' tiy. But to grant large premiums for the pro- 



" printed, entitled, Same ihaughlt upon Iiulian ' dutllonii of the earth would turn the minds of 



a/fairt,' l^c. ' the fettlers diredUy to indullry, and the cultiva- 



He alfo recommends colonizing the interior ' tion of produce fuited to the climate, wiiich 



parts of America, but prifera the cotjntry of the ' would enable the colony in a lew years to fend 



Nalchts, :arther di.'.vn the MilGIFippi, for the feat ' laige returns home to this illand.' He advjfef, 



of the new colony, v^'hi•h the i''rcDch writers have that the piemiiiins be paid at an early llage of the 



cultivaliuii . 



