health and strength; which are given him by his King and Country, to keep the body healthful and vigorous for the duty of his office, in Peace as well as War. It is a crime sometimes as atrocious as Desertion itself; for a man might as well desert his post, as to be found on it, in a condition, which unmans him, and renders him incapable of the duties belonging

to it.

I do not include here, those occasional excesses which men of gay and social spirits (enemies to all habitual intemperance) may sometimes be innocently and unguardedly led into; (though these ought to be avoided with a strict and watchful care;) but I mean that beastly, sottish, unsocial, and habitual intoxication, both in private and public, which, from small beginnings, steal upon a man, by imperceptible degrees; till at length, his very vital powers and stomach are so corroded, that he becomes at last unsatisfied with the warmest and strongest draughts, and his stomach is constantly craving, and constantly in want.

If there is one thing that has contributed more than another, to enfeeble our Warriors of modern times; if now their unbraced and weak nerves do not enable them to draw the Bow, or wield the Spear, with the robust vigour of more ancient days; if now our Span of life is shorter, and we are born with diseases, and propagate them to our posterity; if we labour under debilities and degeneracy of constitution, from Father to Son-I will be bold to ascribe all this decay of honour and strength, and of native vigour, to that Cursed Cup of Perdition, those maddening draughts of Spiritous Liquors, so cheaply procured,

for more than a Century past, from our island colonies. It is too fatally evident that it is from this cause, especially among the common classes of people, who ought to be the glory and strength of every nation, "that we find the vigour of our Young Men abating, their numbers decreasing, our ripened Manhood a premature victim to Disease and Death, and our Old Age, if peradventure we reach Old Age, only the weak Drivelings of a second Childhood."

And as to our reason and understanding, what need. I mention that derangement of all our mental faculties, that barbarian madness, which we feel when under the dominion of those poisonous draughts? Do they not prove, beyond doubt, that they impair the native powers of the Mind, as well as pull down Reason from its throne, dissipate every ray of the Divinity within us, and sink us into a state of existence lower than that of the Brute Beasts? But greater evils, if possible, still remain to be mentioned, as flowing out of this Cup of Perdition. During the unlucky moments of intoxication, the Soldier's turn of duty calls him to some actual service; but, by his incapacity, he disgraces the fair Field of Honour, and loses the great Road of Glory, and his Chance of Preferment! and alas! worse than this, in his mad and stupified state, he plunges himself into some great and Capital crime.

A quarrel arises, and by his hand, one of his Fellow Mortals is hurried into Eternity-unprepared to meet his Judge-his Sins unrepented of; and all his affairs, respecting this world, as well as the next, wholly unsettled, desperate and hopeless.

The victim of his inebriated madness was the Father of a Family, happy in a tender Wife, and dutiful affectionate Children! The former now deprived of her whole comfort and stay in life, perhaps, soon ends her days and afflictions in the deepest agonies of Grief and Despair; while the poor Orphan Children, robbed of all their hopes, of parental aid for obtaining a settlement in the world, (now Fatherless and Motherless) are doomed to beg their Bread, and wander, wretched vagabonds, over the face of the earth.

Oh! thou miserable man, author of this mischief, whether Soldier or Citizen, how piercing and agonizing must be your reflections, in your sober moments, (if you ever have any) upon this dreadful act of violence; especially if you consider farther, that the victim of your madness was (perhaps) your Bosom Friend, your former intimate companion," one with whom you took sweet counsel, and even walked unto the House of God, in company with him," although, alas! in the sad moment of this last act, you could not distinguish a friend from a foe!

Gracious heaven! can you who have committed such an act, ever enjoy one quiet moment more upon earth? Must not the mangled Ghost of your murdered Friend-the wandering forlorn spectres of his bereaved destitute Orphans, haunt your troubled conscience, by night and by day? But I forbear adding more to this dreadful picture, on the present occasion. Enough has been said to convince Civilized Men of the pernicious effects of the immoderate use of Spiritous Liquors-this Cup of Perdition-nay to convince even Savages themselves; and, as some proof

of this, I will conclude with a short supplementary Sermon, or Speech of a CREEK INDIAN, on the same subject, which contains all that I could wish further to offer thereon.

How I came to the possession of it, and published it in London among some other writings of my own fifty years ago; what right I had then to publish it, and afterwards to conclude this Sermon with it, in 1768, before the XVIIIth, or Royal Regiment of Ireland, will appear from the following introduction to a republication of it, in the Columbian Magazine for June 1790, p. 367, &c. running as follows, viz.

A SPEECH

AGAINST THE IMMODERATE USE OF SPIRITOUS LIQUORS, DELIVERED BY A CREEK INDIAN, IN A NATIONAL COUNCIL, ON THE BREAKING OUT OF A WAR, ABOUT THE YEAR 1748.

INTRODUCTION.

THIS excellent Speech exposes the abominable vice of drunkenness, in a masterly manner; and must be highly gratifying to every reader, who can feel and relish the beauties of composition. We hesitate not to pronounce it, one of the most completely finished and highly animated performances, that have ever appeared in the English language. It will be found, on a critical examination, to contain all the parts or members of the most perfect Oration. In loftiness of expression, boldness of figures, and pomp of imagery, it is, if we are not mistaken, far

superior to any thing of the kind among the moderns; nor will it suffer from a comparison with the best rhetorical compositions of the ancients. The first draft of this celebrated Speech is said to have been taken, in short-hand, in a council of the Creek Indians, about the year 1748. It came into the hands of a deputy of Sir William Johnson, Secretary for Indian Affairs, a gentleman of the name of Wraxal, in the year 1752; who communicated his notes of it to a gentleman (then living at New-York) who has long been honourably distinguished in the republic of letters, in Pennsylvania, who is particularly eminent in rhetorical compositions, and whose writings, even now, notwithstanding his advanced age, discover all the fire and energy of the most lively youthful imagination. After having been first published in a New-York Gazette, it was, by the same gentleman, republished with some other Indian compositions, in London, about the beginning of the year 1754; and a very high character is given of the work in the Monthly Review for April, of that year.

The gentleman above mentioned has prefixed an Introduction to the work, in which he justly observes, that, "Of all the vices which prevail in the world, none more degrades human nature, and dishonours the glorious image of the Deity, than immoderate drinking; and there is none against which more has been said, both from the press and pulpit: yet still this vice rears its shameless front, and reels from street to street in broad day. Hence it was thought that the following Speech of a Creek Indian on this subject, might, at least, be acceptable to the curious: and should it have no good effect, it will be but one patriot-remonstrance more thrown away."

"Charity bids us suppose, that our Laws, our Religion, and Civil Accomplishments, elevate the people of this country, far above the enormities that gave rise to this oration among a people we esteem barbarians; yet so frail is the texture both of public and private virtue, and so mutable the state of human affairs, that though we could think such a remonstrance unnecessary at pre

• Viz. This Speech of a Creek Indian; a letter from Yariza, an Indian maid; Indian Songs of Peace; and an American Fable. See Monthly Review for 1754-p. 285, &c.