The New Hampshire Gazette Newspaper, May 28, 1762, Page 1

‘FRIDAY, Mx & 1 N ew-Hampfhire ; TotheP RIN TER 1 findly your lafiPaper that you are willing, when there is a fcareity of News, to entertain your Cuflomers avith fuch natural curiofities as are the moft remark- able ; for awbich purpofe yor bawe leleBed from the Univerial Magazine, an decount of a Triton, or Sea Man, /ately feennear the Ifland of Martinéco. HIS Account appears, through the cir- cumfpeétion of the perfons to whom it wasdelivered,in tracing it feperately, to catry with it the greateft marks of probability. But however this may be, the exifterce of thefe animals are much exploded,and that by fome of the greateft naturalifts ; one of whom in particalar, has the following obfer- vation:“ There i3 1o doubt,but that all the fables.con- cerning Sirens, Mermaids, and Mermen, took their rife from an imperfet view of 3 ' Sea Cow.” In an. {wer to this, I alledge that many have had a very perfect view of this snimal, and in this part of the world in particalar ; for feveral have been caught to the Eaftward ; and fince Lowisburgh has been in our pofleflion,fome have been taken even in the harbour of that place. As to thie likenefs of the cow anfwer- ing {o nearly to the defcription of the Mermaid, &c. (however vague fuch defcription may be thought)that the former may be eafily fubflituted for the latter, as the above author intimates, cannot be allowed ; for they are {o far from having any likelinefs of the ha- man Species, that there is a firiking one of the ani- mal from which it takes its name. That there are fuch animals as Mermaids, &c. many proofs may be brought ; but I fhall confine myfelf to a few : Firft, Mr. Gordon in his Geo. Gram. tells us of feeing among the varieties of Leydon, a hand of a remarkable {ca animal, taken at Ethiopia, in Africa, and called a Syren, from its melodious voice. Likewife of feeing two hands of the fame kind, in the Mufzum Regium at Copenhagen. And in his defcription of thePhillipine iflands he has thefe particalars ; ** In the fea furrounding thefe iflands is frequently fecn a fort of fith, or fea monfter, about the bignefs of a calf ; which in fhape doth much re- femble the ancient Syrens, fo famous 2mong the poets ; whence our Englifh pavigators term it the Woman fi/b, becaunfe its hiead, face, neck and breafts, are fumewhat like thofe of the fair fex.”” '1'o this ac- count I fhall {fubjoin that of Father Hemrigues, the jefuit, mentioned in the actount you publifhed ; tho’ they are from different oceans, there is fome fimilitude (bat may tend to prove the exiftence of thefe animals, which is all I attempt. His relation is, That ke had feen {even Tritons & nine Syrems, that had been taken near theifland of Ceylom, in which the fexes were very diftinét. There is likewife iin one of the Gerticpnan’s Magawines, an account of one of the fame fpecies, which is exhibited by a cat, that was kept alive fome time in France. [/z thcUniverfal Magazine, from ahence ae took the account publifbed in this paper there is alfo a eut of the exall reprejentation of the Triton lately feen near tbe ifland of Martinico ] Bat notwithftanding what bas been faid,I am fen fible it will not be fufficient to prevent many from ridicaling as fpurious, your former account as this : I fhall therefore beg leave,if you have a fpare column, to copy an ancient narrative, the authenticity of which is unimpeached, it is from a pamphlet, entituled as follows : & Difcourfe and Difcovery of Newfoundland by Capt Richard Whitbourne, Landon, 1622. “Now alfo I will not omit torelate fomething of a firange creature which I firk faw here in the year 1610. In the morning early, as I was flandivg by the river filein the harbour of St. Fobn's in Newfoundland, a furpr.zing creature came very fwift- ly fwimming towards me, looking cheaifully on my face ; it was like a woman by the face, eyes, nofe, mouth, chin, ears, neck and forehead ; it feemed to be as beautiful, and in thofe parts as well propor- tioned, Round the head it had many biue ftreaks refembling hair, but certainly it was not hair. Vet 1 beheld iclong, and another of my company alfo, yet liviog, that was near me. At its approach I Atepped back, for it was come within the length of a long pike of me, fuppofing it would have fprung on land to me ; for I have {een huge whales, and other great fith {pring a great height above water, and fo might this ftrange creature do to me if I ftood ftill where I was ; by its altions I verily believe it had fuch a purpofe ; but when it faw Iwent from it, it Containing the Frefbeft Advices, G did theredpon dive a little under water, and fwam towards the place, where a little before I had land ‘ed; often looking back towards me, whereby I beheld the fhoulders& back down to the middle,to be fo fquare, white and {mooth, as the back of a man, & from the middle to'the hinder parts it was wanting, in propartion, fomething like 2 broad hocked arrow. How 1t was in the fgré part, from the neck and fhoulders downwards; ¥ could not well difcern. It came thor(ly afcer t6 a -boat in the fame harbour, “whercin was' my fervabe #5liiam Hawkridge, (fince Captain of a fhip in the E«f. Indies ) this creature put both his bands upon the fide of the boat and did ftrive much to come in to him- and divers others then in the faid boat, whereat they were afraid, and one of them ftruck it a full blow on the hesd,where by it fell off from them ; but afterwards it came to two other boats in the faid haibour; asthey lay near the (hore, the then in them, for fear, fled to land and beheld it. This, I fuppofe, was a Mersman, or Mermaid. As there are others that have written of thefe creatures, I have prefumed to relate what I have {een, and. is moft cerainly true. Richard Whithourne.” May 14 1762. W.X. A Deforiptionsy AUGUSTIN. _ Uguftin St. a city inFlorida, inNorth-America, A fitoated on the eaftern coaft of the peninfula, wathed by theAtlantic ocean, about 8o leagues from the mouth of the gulph of Florida, or channel of Bahama,and 47 from the town and river of Savanah. It is buiit along the fhore, at the bottom of a hill, in an oblong fquare, divided into four ftreets: Near it is the church and monaftery of the order ofSt. Auguflin. The caftle is calted St. John’sFort, built of foft ftone hat four battions,a caurtain 6o yards long, a parapet, nine feet thick,and a rampart zo feet high,calemen- ted, arched, and bomb proof: There are 50 pieces of cannon, ‘16 of which are brafs, and {ome are 24 pounders ; it has a covered way, and the town is en- trenched with 10 faliant angles. In 1586, Sir Francis Drake took it ; and in 1665, it was plundered by ¢aptain Davis the buccanecer. The Englith and In dizns of Carolina attacked it again in 170z, under colonel Mgore;who abandoned it after three months fiege, and plundering and burning the country,leav- ing the fhips and fores to the enemy, on the fight of fome Spanifh cruifers ; and marched back to Charleftown, 300 miles by land. General Oglethorp was the laft who befieged it,in 1740 ; he bombarded both the town and caftle, but was obliged to raife the fiege. This town, as well as Georgia, is within the limits of S. Carolina ; ths’ unjuftly kept from us by the Spaniards. Lat. 8. 30. N.Long. 8¢.10 Weft. Soms Account of Cadiz, and its Redullion formerly. IT being expefled that Admiral SAUNDERS will attack Cadiz, the following Account may be acceptable to oar Readers, ¢ When this Place was attacked by the Englifh in 1596, it was eafily reduced. The particulars of that glorious expedition are thus related by Sir Walter Releigh : It 'was refolved by the Lord Admiral, and the Earl of Effex, that the. town.fhould be firft at- tempted, that both the Spanith galleons and gallies, together with the forts of Cales, might not at once beat upon the Englith fleet. The Earl propofed to make his defcent on the Weft fide of Cales, which at laft, was judged too dangerous an attempt ; and it wasthen agreed to enter the Port. Sir Walter led the attack with feven fhips of war, twelve London thips, and fome fly boats. There were ranged under the wall of Cales, on which the fea beat, i7 gallies, which lay -with their prows to flaok their entrance as the Englifh pafled towards the galleons. There was a fort, called the Phillip, which beat and com manded the harbour. There were alfo ordnance which lay along the cunain, upon the walls to- wards the fea ; befides feveral other pieces of culverin, which fcoured the channel. Notwithftand- ing as foon as the Spanith Admirals faw the Englith approaching, they alfo fet fail,’ and anchored under the fort of Purtal, in a ftrait of the harbour whichk leads towards Porto Real.” The Spaniards had four thips of war, two great galleons, three frigates, the three Admirals of New Spain, and forty other great thips ; with which they hoped to defend thg entrance, the place being no broader from point to point than it never before received, g o > vy - &~ = - 5 Nuwms. 2’95" { Weeks fince this Parzh was firlt Publifh’d. AZETTE Foreign and Domg/ii&‘é. thofe in effct firetched over as a bridge, and had befides the fort of Puntal to their guard. >ir Walter was firlt faluted by fort Phillips, afterwards by the ordnance on the cartain, and laftly by all the pallieys but the Englith warped clofe ‘up, and the Spanih fhips ran agrognd, tumbling into the fea heaps of. foidiers, thick as if coals had been poured out of = fack in many ports at once, fome drowned dad fome fticking in the mud, The four Spanith fhips.wera all burat, funk or taken. This being happily finithed,, the Eoglifh prepared to land the army, and . agemps the town,in which there were about §ooo burghers, 150 foldiers, and 800 horfe, " The horfe men ruthed out to refift the landing, but were foon repulfed, and were {o clofely followed, that the Englith carried the town with fudden fury and litcle lofs. The city was plundered, and was very rich in merchandize, plate and money. Many rich prifoners were given to the land commanders, fome of whom were ranfomed for 16,000 ducats,& fome for 20,000 befides great houfes of Merchandize. The Spanith merchants offered two miilions, of ducats to {pare a fleet of thips bound to the Eaft Indies, which were faid to be worth twelve millions, and lay in Port Real road, where they could not elcape ; but the Duke of Mediam caufed all the fleet of merchantmen tobe fet on fire, fo that the galleons, frigates, &c ekcept two which were taken,together with all the fleet of New Spain, were 3!l reduced to Athes. Such is the account of the reduttion of Cadiz, given by Sir WalterReleigh.' The city of Cadiz contains about 5300 houfes, and 0,000 inhabitants;itis the centse of. all theAmericam trade, where the galleons take in their loading, and return with the treafures and rich merchandize of Pern and Mexico. e e RO e o T | e Lo | (N T T T ey To the ?FTNP; E.R S the Spaniards have thought proper to force us into a war with them, it hehoves us to profe - cute it in all pointsto our greateft advantage. Now the main points that I thinkk we ought to have in view, are the completing and fecuring our Empira in North America. _ This Empire will be compleated and entirely fe- cured by our acquifitions of Spanith- Florida, and French Louifiana : And there is little more neceffary for the getting thofe two provinces into our pofleffion than the taking of New Orleans, and what other French fettlements may be near the mouth of the Miffifippi, and of St. Auguftine on the promontory., of Florida. The pofieflion of the fhores of thofer two provinces muft foon make us mafters of the in< ferior countries,which are but thinly inhabited : and if once in ®ur pofleflion, I do not think it can ba poflible for the French and Spaniards together ever to retake them from us ; fo, by our perfifting in re= taining them at all events for ever,we fhall completa our Empirein North- America, and fix ita fecurity om a firm bafis. _ Thefe conquefts being made and poflefled, - there will remain a large ard fecure barrier of Indian na- tions between the compleat body of Britith fettle ments in North America, and the great Spanith em— pire of Mexico : and fuch a diftribution of territory, with the total exclufion of theFrench,will be the only~ medns likely to procure a lafting peace on that conti- nent, as weil as for the fecuring the profperity and power of this kingdom,& for enabling it to difcharge its public debt,and thereby fecure its great commerca throughout the world.. : W hatever views befides may be entertained by ovs miniftry, I cannot help thinking this ought to be theie primary objet ; as what of all purfuits will be the moft important to obtain ; becaufe it will fix our co- lony fecurity beyond the reach of rival ftates in futura times to endanger ; and add fuch a firength in num< bers of people, in trgde,and navigation, as will efta< blifh our power uncontroulablé on the ocean. The great game of policy I mult therefore think is now, fairly in our hands,&nd, if played with true wifdom,’ it-will infalliably become our awn. We fhallrife up with the whole ftake for which we kave, with oug worft enemy, fo long contended. : By this fccondary conqueft, Canada only can be- come valuable : and, if it-is atchieved, the glories of the prefent adminiftration will exceed thofe of the patt ; for they will not only add to our -poffeflion & mach larger extent of territary, but give fecurity. to the whole, and {uch advantages to their country sg