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European writers, whose celebrity gave currency and 

 weight to their opinions, that our country, from the 

 coml)ined effects of soil and chmate, degenerated ani- 

 mal nature, in the general, and j)articularly the moral 

 faculties of man, I considered the speech of Logan as 

 an apt proof of the contrary, and used it as such ; and 

 I copied, verbatim, the narrative 1 had taken down in 

 1774 and the speech as it had been given us in a better 

 translation by Lord Dunmore. I knew nothing of the 

 Cresaps, and could not possibly have a motive to do them 

 an injury with design. I repeated what thousands had 

 done before, on as good authority as we have for most 

 of the facts we learn through life, and such as, to this 

 moment, I have seen no reason to doubt. That any bo- 

 dy questioned it, was never suspected by me, till 1 saw 

 the letter of Mr Martin in the Baltimore paper. I en- 

 deavoured then to recollect who among ujy contempora- 

 ries, of the same circle of society, and consequently of 

 the same recollections, might still be alive. Three and 

 twenty years of death and dis})ersion had left very few. 

 I remembered, however, that Gen. Gibson was still li- 

 ving, and knew that he had been the translator of the 

 speech. I wrote to him immediately. He, in answer, 

 declares to me, that he was the very person sent by Lord 

 Dunmore to the Lidian town; that, after he had deliver- 

 ed his message there, Logan took him out to a neigh- 

 bouring wood ; sat down with him, and rehearsing, with 

 tears, ■the catastrophe of his family, gave him that 

 sj)eech for Lord Dunmore ; that he carried it to Lord 

 Dunmore ; translated it for him ; has turned to it in the 

 Encyclopedia, as taken from the Notes on Virginia, and 

 finds that it was his translation I had used, with only 

 two or three verbal variations of no importance. These, 

 I suppose, had arisen in the course of successive co- 

 pies. I cite Gen. Gibson's letter by memory, not ha- 

 ving it with me ; but I am sure I cite it substantially 

 right. It establishes unquestionably, that the speech 

 of Logan is genuine; and that being established, it is 

 Logan himself who is author of all the important facts. 

 " Col. Cresap," says he, " in. cold blood and unprovok 



