The New Hampshire Gazette

From the LONDON CHRONICLE.

To the PRINTERS.

SIRS,

It is near a year since I read the judicious well penned Letter to two Great Men. The noble author of it seems to know the French and their politicks better than I shall pretend to do: But there are some things, which probably were not known to him, as that country is so remote; neither has the ingenious author of the Letter on the Interest of Britain, with regard to her Colonies of America, observed them so fully, as the interest of England seems to require: I shall therefore mention them briefly here, and leave them to the further consideration of superior judges. I mean the importance of the extensive rich Mississippi, which is yet in the possession of the French.

The river Mississippi is now near 1500 miles navigable and has several rivers running into it, both from the east and west; some of which are one, some two, and some above three hundred miles navigable. The land is so rich, and the soil so deep, especially in the south parts of it, that in many places, one may run a soldier's pike up to the head, without meeting with a rock or stone. Its south parts are so warm, and the land so rich, that the French, who live near the city of New Orleans, which is 150 miles up from the mouth of that river, have planted and made good sugar there these five years past. What an immense extensive trade will that city have, which is the sea port (as New Orleans now is) to all this extensive country, which is capable of producing every thing, sugar, wine, &c. if civilized, cultivated and peopled, as it may probably be in a few centuries!

The crown of England has a right, by discovery and taking possession of all this country, and King Charles II. granted it to the ancestors of the late Dr. Cox; but they neglected to settle and people it: and Sir Francis Drake took possession of the west side of it, as far north as lat. 42, and a great way south of that, for Queen Elizabeth: but the English neglecting to settle it, the French came and built the city of New Orleans, fifty leagues up the river, and a fort or two above sixty miles below the city. This city and the forts might have been easily taken the last winter, or this, as the winter is the best time to take it in, it being so warm there; if the English had sent two or 3000 men down the river Ohio into the Mississippi, and thither in large boats, as there is timber enough on its banks to build 'em with, the English might have been in possession of all North America (except Cape Florida and the north part of Mexico, which belong to Spain) and our King would then have been in possession of both the north and south passages to that fine country, and Canada also; and no way left for the French to come at either of them. The French now are, and ever will be, enemies to the English, and have stirred up the Cherokees, and other Indian nations, to fall upon the remote parts of Virginia, Carolina and Georgia, and commit so many barbarous and cruel murders on the English subjects, as they have lately done there.

This country is of much greater importance to England than Canada is; Canada is of much greater importance to the French than to us, and consequently the loss will be greater to them, because it supplies them with masts, yards, and other timber for building ships, which they cannot get elsewhere but at a great expense, and money may be scarce. But either Mississippi or Canada is of much greater importance to England than both Martinico and Guadaloupe, with all the Neutral Islands and Port Mahon also. Guadaloupe (except its being ready cultivated) is not of so much value as the three neutral islands, Dominica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent are, which are now, and have been, contrary to treaties, possessed by the French. The first is near as large and as good an island as Barbados is, and they have built forts, and have now near four thousand inhabitants in the first; and forts, and near two thousand inhabitants in the second, and some in St. Vincent: but the Indians will not permit them to build any forts. The French had begun to settle in Tobago also, which is indisputably a British island, but Governor Grenville sent two men of war, and carried all the French inhabitants out of it, at the conclusion of the last war.

Three thousand men sent down the Ohio, and two good ships to the mouth of the Mississippi, will take New Orleans, and all that country. Guadaloupe is not of that importance or value that our news papers would make it. It may be exchanged at a peace for some other place which may then be in the hands of the French; and if we can get the neutral islands also ceded to us, those three islands, and Tobago, when cultivated, will produce more than twice as much sugar as Guadaloupe can. And North America (when New Orleans and Mississippi are all taken) will be little enough to indemnify England for this expensive war, which was begun by the unjust encroachments and depredations made by the French and their Indians, whom they instigated.

PHILOPATRIA.