the present bed of the ocean was once covered with verdure, and the seat
of the sorrows and joys of myriads of human beings, who erected cities,
and built pyramids, and monuments, which Time has long since swept away,
and wrapt in his eternal mantle of oblivion. That a constant, but almost
imperceptible change is hourly taking place in the earth's surface,
appears to be established; and independent of the extraordinary
_bouleversements_, which have at intervals convulsed our globe, this
gradual revolution has produced, and will produce again, a total
alteration in the face of nature.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] Amongst other plans to this effect, there is one proposed, by which
midshipmen on half-pay will be obliged to make at least two voyages
annually, in merchant ships, as mates, and all others must have done so,
in order to entitle them to be reinstated in their former rank. Another
is, that there shall be small vessels, rigged and fitted out in war
style, appropriated to the purpose of teaching pupils, practically, the
science of navigation, and the discipline necessary to be observed on
board vessels of war. The Americans may not eat their fish with silver
forks, nor lave their fingers in the most approved style; yet they are by
no means so contemptible a people as some of our small gentry affect to
think. They may too, occasionally, be put down in political argument, by
the dogmatical method of the quarter-deck; but I must confess that _I_
never was so fortunate as to come in contact with any who reasoned so
badly as the persons Captain Bazil Hall introduces in his book.

CHAPTER IX.

The wailings of the Cherokee, the Choctaw, and the Creek, may have been
wafted across the waters of the great salt lake, and the Pale-face in his
own land may have heard their lamentations;--but the distant voice is
scattered by the passing winds, and is heard like the whisper of a summer
breeze as it steals along the prairies of the west, or the cry of the
wish-ton-wish as it faintly reaches the ear of the navigator, when, in the
stilly night, he floats down "the old father of waters."

The present posture of Indian affairs, and the peculiar situation of the
Indian nations east of the Mississippi, have caused that unfortunate
people to be the topic of much political controversy and conversation; a
succinct account of the political condition of these tribes, and of the
policy which has been pursued, and which is being pursued towa