[Editor of Magazine of American History: My brother, Rev. Dr. T. Stafford Drowne, has the original document with the above title, which was printed in French on board the Languedoc, for the Count d'Estaing, October 28, 1778. It was translated from the French, and published in the Massachusetts Spy at Worcester, Massachusetts, December 10, 1778, a copy of which is now in my possession, and I take pleasure in presenting it to your readers. HENRY T. DROWNE.]

The undersigned authorised by His Majesty, and thence cloathed with the noblest of titles, with that which effaces all others; charged in the name of his Father of his Country, and the beneficent protector of his subjects, to offer a support to those who were born to enjoy the blessings of his government— To all his Countrymen in North-America.

You were born French; you could never cease to be French. The late war, which was not declared but by the captivity of nearly all our seamen, and the principal advantages of which our common enemies entirely owed to the courage, the talents, and the numbers of the brave Americans, who are now fighting against them, has wrested from you, that which is most dear to all men, even the name of your country. To compel you to bear the arms of Parracides against it, must be the completion of misfortunes: With this you are now threatened: A new war may justly make you dread being obliged to submit to this most intolerable law of slavery. It has commenced like the last, by depredations upon the most valuable part of our trade. Too long already have a great number of unfortunate French

men, been confined in American prisons. You hear their groans. The present war was declared by a message in March last from the King of Great Britain to both houses of Parliament; a most authentic act of the British sovereignty, announcing to all orders of the State, that to trade [with America] though without excluding others from the same right, was to offend; that frankly to avow such intention was to defy this sovereignty; that she would revenge it and defer this only to a more advantageous opportunity, when she might do it with more appearance of legality than in the last war :-For she declared that she had the right, the will, and the ability to revenge; and accordingly she demanded of parliament the supplies.

The calamities of a war thus proclaimed have been restrained and retarded as much as was possible, by a Monarch whose pacific and disinterested views now reclaim the marks of your former attachment, only for your own happiness: Constrained to repel force by force, and multiplied hostilities by reprisals, which he has at last authorised, if necessity should carry his arms, or those of his allies into a country always dear to him, you have not to fear either burnings or devastations: And if gratitude, if the view of a flag always revered by those who have followed it, should recal to the banners of France, or of the United States, the Indians, who loved us, and have been loaded with presents by him, whom they also call their Father; never, no never shall they employ against you their too cruel methods of war. These they must renounce, or they will cease to be our friends.

It is not by menaces that we shall endeavour to avoid combating with our countrymen, nor shall we weaken this declaration by invectives against a great and brave nation, which we know how to respect, and hope to vanquish.

As a French gentleman, I need not to mention to those among you who were born such as well as myself, that there is but one august house in the universe, under which the French can be happy, and serve with pleasure; since its head, and those who are most nearly allied to him by blood, have been at all times, through a long line of monarchs, and are at this day more than ever delighted with bearing that very title which Henry IV regarded as the first of his own. I shall not excite your regrets for those qualifications, those marks of distinction, those decorations, which, in our matter of thinking, are precious treasures; but from which, by our common misfortunes, the American French, who have known so well how to deserve them are now precluded. These, I am bold to hope and to promise, their zeal will very soon procure to be diffused among them. They will merit them when they dare to become the friends of our allies.

I shall not ask the military companions of the Marquis of Levi; those who shared his glory, who admired his talents and genius for war, who loved his cordiality and frankness, the principal characteristics of our nobility, whether there be other names in other nations, among which they would be better pleased to place their own.

Can the Canadians, who saw the brave Montcalm fall in their defence, can they

become the enemies of his nephews? Can they fight against their former leaders, and arm themselves against their kinsmen? At the bare mention of their names the weapons would fall out of their hands.

I shall not observe to the ministers of the altars, that their evangelic efforts will require the special protection of Providence, to prevent faith being diminished by example, by worldly interest, and by sovereigns whom force has imposed upon them, and whose political indulgence will be lessened proportionably as those sovereigns shall have less to fear. I shall not observe, that it is necessary for religion that those who preach it should form a body in the state; and that in Canada no other body would be more considered, or have more power to do good than that of the priests, taking a part in the government; since their respective conduct has merited the confidence of the people.

I shall not represent to that people, nor to all my countrymen in general, that a vast monarchy, having the same religion, the same manners, the same language, where they find kinsmen, old friends, and brethren, must be an inexhaustible source of commerce and wealth, more easily acquired and better secured, by their union with powerful neighbours, than with strangers of another hemisphere, among whom everything is different, and who, jealous and despotic sovereigns, would sooner or later treat them as a conquered people, and doubtless much worse than their late countrymen the Americans, who made them victorious. I shall not urge to a whole people that to JOIN with the United States is to secure their own happiness; since a whole people, when they acquire the right of thinking and acting for themselves, must know their own interest: But I will declare, and I now formally order in the name of His Majesty, who has authorized and commanded me to do it, that all his former subjects in North America, who shall no more acknowledge the supremacy of Great Britain, may depend upon his protection and support.

Done on board his Majesty's ship, the Languedoc, in the harbour of Boston, the twenty eighth day of October, in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy eight. ESTAING.

BIGREL DE GRANDOLOS, Secretary appointed by the King, to the Squadron commanded by the Count D'Estaing. Printed on board the Languedoc, by P. P. Demauge, printer to the King and the Squadron.

THE EARLIEST NEWSPAPERS OF NORTH CAROLINA

In a discourse before the North Carolina Historical Society at its September meeting, Dr. Stephen B. Weeks made some very interesting statements in relation to early printing and the pioneer newspapers of North Carolina. The following is a brief synopsis of his address: "The first printing-press in America was carried to Mexico by the Spanish viceroy, Mendoza, in 1536. The first in the United

States was set up in connection with the founding of Harvard college. James Davis brought the first press to the province of North Carolina in 1749. Two years later he printed Swann's Revisal, or as it is familiarly called, The Yellow Jacket. Davis issued in December, 1755, the first number of the North Carolina Gazette, at New Berne. It was continued six years, and revived in 1764 under the name of North Carolina Magazine and Universal Intelligencer. This continued a little over a year. In 1768 it was revived again under its old name of

North Carolina Gazette.

In September, 1764, Andrew Stewart began to print The Cape Fear Gazette and Wilmington Advertiser. Stewart was patronized by the best people of Wilmington, but he fell into discredit and had to suspend for lack of support. His outfit was purchased by Adam Boyd, who began the Cape Fear Mercury in 1769. It was in this paper that Governor Martin saw, June 20, 1775, the 'Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.' There were four presses in operation at various times during the Revolution—one in New Berne, one in Halifax, one in the army of Cornwallis, and another in the army of General Greene. The first paper printed after the close of the war was the North Carolina Gazette or Impartial Intelligencer and General Weekly Advertiser, in New Berne.

From 1785 the number of presses and papers increased rapidly. One of the most active printers of that day was Abraham Hodge; he was public printer for fifteen years. He founded The State Gazette of North Carolina, in Edenton, in 1786, the North Carolina Journal in Halifax, in 1793, and the Fayetteville Minerva early in 1796. He was one of the earliest donors to the library of the university of North Carolina. But the printer who did most, perhaps, for the upbuilding and intellectual advancement of North Carolina, was Joseph Gales, Sr. He issued the first number of the Raleigh Register on October 22, 1799. During the eighteenth century, newspapers were published at one time or another in New Berne, Wilmington, Raleigh, Edenton, Halifax, Hillsboro, Fayetteville, Salisbury, and perhaps Lincolnton. There were two paper manufactories in the state, one established near Hillsboro, in 1778, the other in Salem in 1789."

NOTES

PETERSFIELD

ple to take notice that their gods are powerless to help themselves, that possibly if some intelligent native had tumbled down the image of the Virgin or patron saint after them nothing very remarkable might have ensued in consequence."

VALUABLE HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS

PROVIDENCE GINGERBREAD A bet was made in Providence, on the late gubernatorial election, of a cake of gingerbread, to be of as large dimensions as the winner should direct. Accordingly, a cake was baked by Mr. William Barstow, under direction, of the following dimensions: It was ten feet long, two feet two inches wide, two inches thick, and contained forty-three-Secretary Thwaites, of the Wisconsin feet four inches board measure. It was Historical Society, has for three years exhibited for distribution, handsomely past been engaged in picking up for the figured, and dressed out with box. In society's archives all old manuscripts eating the cake all parties united; the which in any way throw light upon the recipients hoping that it was a foretaste early history of the state. Letter-books, of the racy, soft, and refreshing admin- diaries, old letters, memoranda, furistration of the successful candidate. trade account-books, etc., have already Boston Centinel, April, 1821. been gathered in by the thousands, and the work still goes on. His collection from the descendants of the old furtraders is now very nearly as complete as he can hope to make it, the collection already made amounting to somewhat over 20,000 documents, which were not long ago bound up, in classified chronological order, into over one hundred stout folio volumes which reveal the inner history of Wisconsin from about 1760 until 1835. From these volumes can be obtained many curious details of early life in Wisconsin, and indeed many a pioneer romance. The secretary recently returned from a trip to Green Bay, Fort Howard and Kaukauna, where he made some new finds of great interest and was put on the track of a few more batches of old papers, which are probably about the last now in existence. Efforts are being made to secure early documents from

CHARLES DICKENS ON PRESCOTT'S WORK-In one of Dickens's letters to Professor Felton, which appears in the delightful edition of Dickens's letters recently issued by Charles Scribner's Sons, appears the following paragraph: "I wrote to Prescott about his book, with which I was perfectly charmed. I think his descriptions masterly, his style brilliant, his purpose manly and gallant always. The introductory account of Aztec civilization impressed me exactly as it impressed you. From beginning to end the whole history is enchanting and full of genius. I only wonder that having such an opportunity of illustrating the doctrine of visible judgments, he never remarks when Cortes and his men tumble the idols down the temple steps and call upon the peo