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Transcriber's Note:

When italics were used in the original book, the corresponding text has
been surrounded by _underscores_. Superscripted characters have been
preceded by ^ and surrounded by {} when more than one character is
superscripted. Some corrections have been made to the original. These
are detailed in a second transcriber's note at the end of the document.

[Illustration:

  _Capt^n. JONATHAN CARVER._

  _From the_ Original Picture _in the possession of J.C. Lettsom M.D._

  _Published as the Act directs, by R. Stewart, N^o. 287, near G^t.
    Turnstile, Holborn Nov^r. 16, 1780._
]




                                TRAVELS

                              THROUGH THE

                             INTERIOR PARTS

                                   OF

                             NORTH AMERICA,

                                 IN THE

                      YEARS 1766, 1767, and 1768.

                           BY J. CARVER, ESQ.

                   CAPTAIN OF A COMPANY OF PROVINCIAL
                         TROOPS DURING THE LATE
                            WAR WITH FRANCE.


                    ILLUSTRATED WITH COPPER PLATES,
                              .


                           THE THIRD EDITION.

                 To which is added, SOME ACCOUNT OF THE
                      AUTHOR, AND A COPIOUS INDEX.


                                LONDON:

Printed for C. DILLY, in the Poultry; H. PAYNE, in Pall-mall; and J.
  PHILLIPS, in George-Yard, Lombard-Street.

                               MDCCLXXXI.




                             ADVERTISEMENT.


FEW works have had a more rapid sale than the following; two large
editions having been disposed of in two years. This induced the
proprietors to print a third: but, as soon as this impression was
finished, I purchased both the printed copies and the copy-right.

I have since added to the work, some Account of the Author’s life, and
an Index to the Travels, which are published separately, for the
convenience of the purchasers of the first and second editions; on whom,
I was unwilling to raise an extraordinary tax for the third edition.

                                                   JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM.

London, March 30, 1781.




                                   TO

                           JOSEPH BANKS, Esq;

                               PRESIDENT

                                 OF THE

                             ROYAL SOCIETY.


SIR,

WHEN the Public are informed that I have long had the Honour of your
Acquaintance——that my Design in publishing the following Work has
received your Sanction——that the Composition of it has stood the Test of
your Judgment——and that it is by your Permission a Name so deservedly
eminent in the Literary World is prefixed to it, I need not be
apprehensive of its Success; as your Patronage will unquestionably give
them Assurance of its Merit.


For this public Testimony of your Favour, in which I pride myself,
accept, Sir, my most grateful Acknowledgments; and believe me to be,
with great Respect,

                                                  Your obedient

                                                  humble Servant,

                                                  J. CARVER.




                                   AN

                                ADDRESS

                                 TO THE

                                PUBLIC.

                          THE SECOND EDITION.

_The favourable reception this Work has met with, claims the Author’s
most grateful acknowledgments. A large edition having run off in a few
months, and the sale appearing to be still unabated, a new impression is
become necessary. On this occasion was he to conceal his feelings, and
pass over, in silence, a distinction so beneficial and flattering, he
would justly incur the imputation of ingratitude. That he might not do
this, he takes the opportunity, which now presents itself, of conveying
to the Public (though in terms inadequate to the warm emotions of his
heart) the sense he entertains of their favour; and thus transmits to
them his thanks._

_In this new edition, care has been taken to rectify those errors which
have unavoidably proceeded from the hurry of the press, and likewise any
incorrectness in the language that has found its way into it._

_The credibility of some of the incidents related in the following
pages, and some of the stories introduced therein, having been
questioned, particularly the prognostication of the Indian priest on the
banks of Lake Superior, and the story of the Indian and his rattle
snake, the author thinks it necessary to avail himself of the same
opportunity, to endeavour to eradicate any impressions that might have
been made on the minds of his readers, by the apparent improbability of
these relations._

_As to the former, he has related it just as it happened. Being an
eye-witness to the whole transaction (and, he flatters himself, at the
time, free from every trace of sceptical obstinacy or enthusiastic
credulity) he was consequently able to describe every circumstance
minutely and impartially. This he has done; but without endeavouring to
account for the means by which it was accomplished. Whether the
prediction was the result of prior observations, from which certain
consequences were expected to follow by the sagacious priest, and the
completion of it merely accidental; or whether he was really endowed
with supernatural powers, the narrator left to the judgment of his
readers; whose conclusions, he supposes, varied according as the mental
faculties of each were disposed to admit or reject facts that cannot be
accounted for by natural causes._

_The story of the rattle snake was related to him by a French gentleman
of undoubted veracity; and were the readers of this work as thoroughly
acquainted with the sagacity and instinctive proceedings of that animal,
as he is, they would be as well assured of the truth of it. It is well
known, that those snakes which have survived through the summer the
accidents reptiles are liable to, periodically retire to the woods, at
the approach of winter; where each (as curious observers have remarked)
takes possession of the cavity it had occupied the preceding year. As
soon as the season is propitious, enlivened by the invigorating rays of
the sun, they leave these retreats, and make their way to the same spot,
though ever so distant, on which they before had found subsistence, and
the means of propagating their species. Does it then require any
extraordinary exertions of the mind to believe, that one of these
regular creatures, after having been kindly treated by its master,
should return to the box, in which it had usually been supplied with
food, and had met with a comfortable abode, and that nearly about the
time the Indian, from former experiments, was able to guess at? It
certainly does not; nor will the liberal and ingenuous doubt the truth
of a story so well authenticated, because the circumstances appear
extraordinary in a country where the subject of it is scarcely known._

_These explanations the author hopes will suffice to convince his
readers, that he has not, as travellers are sometimes supposed to do,
amused them with improbable tales, or wished to acquire importance by
making his adventures savour of the marvellous._




                                  SOME

                                ACCOUNT

                                   OF

                           CAPTAIN J. CARVER.


THERE is a disposition peculiar to every mind, that early predominates,
and continues its influence through every period of life. Many
circumstances may, indeed, obscure or divert its progress; but on all
interesting occasions this constitutional bias will recur, and exhibit
the natural character and genius of the individual.

Jonathan Carver, the author of the following work, was grandson of
William Joseph Carver, of Wigan, in Lancashire, who was a captain in the
army under king William, and served in Ireland with such distinguished
reputation, that that prince was pleased to reward him with the
government of Connecticut in New-England, which appears to have been the
first appointment to that station by the crown.

Our author was born, anno 1732, at Stillwater, in the province of
Connecticut, since rendered famous by the surrender of the army under
General Burgoyne; his father, who resided at this place, and acted as a
justice of the peace, died, when he was only fifteen years of age. He
had received the rudiments of as liberal an education as could be
procured in that neighbourhood, and, being designed for the practice of
medicine, he was soon after his father’s death placed with a gentleman
of that profession in Elizabeth Town, in the same province. A profession
that requires not only a close and regular attention, but likewise a
steady perseverance, was not suited to that spirit of bold enterprize
and adventure, which seemed to be the ruling passion of our author, who,
at the age of eighteen, purchased an ensigncy in the Connecticut
regiment, in which, as I have been informed, he acquired so much
reputation, as to obtain the command of a company. Of this event,
however, I have not found the least mention among his papers, nor,
indeed, of any other important circumstance of his life till the year
1757, when he was in the army under General Webb, and fortunately
escaped the dreadful massacre at Fort William Henry, where nearly 1500
brave troops were destroyed in cold blood by the Indians in the French
army of General Montcalm.

In the ensuing year, 1758, a battalion of light infantry, commanded by
Colonel Oliver Partridge, was raised in the province of Massachusets
Bay, by order of Governor Pownall, for the purpose of invading Canada,
in which our author served as second lieutenant of Captain Hawks’s
company; and in 1760 he was advanced to be captain of a company in
Colonel Whetcomb’s regiment of foot, during the administration of
Governor Hutchinson. In Governor Barnard’s time, in 1762, Captain Carver
commanded a company of foot in Colonel Saltonstall’s regiment.

I have not been able to collect any anecdotes of our author, during his
military services; but from the written recommendations in my hands, of
persons high in office, under whom he acted, he appears to have
acquitted himself with great reputation, and much to the satisfaction of
his superior officers. These recommendations are not confined to
military conduct merely; they uniformly introduce him as a person of
piety, and of a good moral character. Throughout the narrative of his
travels, indeed, an animated regard to the duties of religion is
evidently prevalent, which must procure a credibility to the facts he
mentions, that might otherwise be suspended. If authors, who have
visited countries unknown to their contemporaries, had always been
actuated by a sacred regard to truth and moral rectitude, history in
general would have been developed with just and convincing relations,
and not left involved in doubt and obscurity.

This firm integrity and undaunted courage appeared evident upon every
interesting occasion: they were, indeed, essentially requisite to
conduct him through the most dangerous enterprizes with a perseverance
that is more generally the offspring of true fortitude, than of daring
boldness or impetuosity of imagination.

With so many favourable requisites for success and advancement,
descended from parents respectable for their military and civil dignity,
as well as for their fortune; endued with courage, sagacity, and a
spirit of enterprize, rarely united in one individual, it might be an
object of enquiry, why Captain Carver, whose conduct was so excellent,
in a moral as well as in a military view, should never have been
promoted above the command of a company.

It is a truth confirmed by history, that true fortitude is the genuine
offspring of an humble mind. Whatever we acquire by industry and labour,
we are apt highly to estimate; it is a kind of new creation of our own;
and a persuasion of this, inspires ambition, and even a forward ardour
for distinction; and what a partial imagination magnifies to ourselves,
we naturally magnify to others, and gradually acquire a consequence, and
reap rewards adequate, if not superior, to desert: but the naturally
brave is naturally modest; what is innate, does not present itself to
the imagination as its own; it neither begets vanity, nor excites
ambition; and thus great endowments, which might have been cherished,
and turned to the most important advantages, are frequently neglected,
and lost to society. Whatever natural or acquired excellencies were
possessed by Captain Carver, not only seemed unnoticed by himself, but
were accompanied by a diffidence, which in some instances was
extraordinary indeed; and the reader must be convinced of this, when he
is informed, that Captain Carver died, through want, with three
commissions in his pocket.

The year after his commission under Colonel Saltonstall was signed, the
peace of Versailles took place, namely, anno 1763, when our author,
having discharged his military obligations to his country, retired from
the army. But his natural turn for enterprize, and the pursuit of
novelty, did not suffer him to enjoy a life of useless ease; he began to
consider, to use his own sentiments (having rendered his country some
services during the war) how he