ACCOUNT OF BENJAMIN BANNEKER A NEGRO CALCULATOR, PREFIXED TO HIS PENNSYLVANIA, DELAWARE, MARYLAND, and VIRGINIA ALMANACK AND EPHEMERIS, FOR THE Year of OUR LORD 1792. BALTIMORE, PRINTED AND SOLD BY W. GODDARD AND J. ANGELL.

For the Bee.

MESSRS GODDARD AND ANGELL, Baltimore, Aug. 20. 1791. "BENJAMIN BANNEKER, a free negro, has calculated an almanack for the ensuing year 1792; which being desirous to dispose of to the best advantage, he has requested me to aid his application to you, for that purpose. Having fully satisfied myself with respect to his title to this kind of authorship, if you can agree with him for the price of his work, I may venture to assure you, it will do you credit as editors, while it will afford you the opportunity to encourage talents that have thus far surmounted the most discouraging circumstances and prejudices.

"This man is about fifty-nine years of age. He was born in Baltimore county. His father was an African, and his mother the offspring of African parents. His father and mother having obtained their freedom, were enabled to send him to an obscure school, where he learned, when a boy, reading, writing, and arithmetic, as far as double po→ sition; and to leave him, at their deaths, a few acres of land, upon which he has supported himself ever since, by means of economy and constant labour, and preserved a fair reputation. To struggle incefsantly against want is nowise favourable to improvement. What he had learned, however, he did not forget; for, as some hours of leisure will occur in the most toilsome life, he availed himself of these, not to read, and acquire knowledge from writings of genius and discovery; for of such he had none,

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but to digest and apply, as occasions presented, the few principles of the few rules of arithmetic he had been taught at school. This kind of mental exercise formed his chief amusement, and soon gave him a facility in calculation that was often serviceable to his neighbours, and at length attracted the attention of the Mefsrs Ellicotts, a family remarkable for their ingenuity, and turn to the useful mechanics. It is about three years since Mr George Ellicott lent him Mayer's Lunar Tables, Ferguson's Astronomy, Leadbetter's Tables, and some astronomical instruments; but without accompanying them with either hint or instruction that might further his studies, or lead him to apply them to any useful result. These books and instruments, the first of the kind he had ever seen, opened a new world to Benjamin, and from thenceforward he employed his leisure in astronomical researches. He now took up the idea of the calculations for an almanack, and actually completed an entire set for the last year, upon his original stock of arithmetic. Encouraged by his first attempt, he entered upon his calculation for 1792; which, as well as the former, he began and finished without the least information or afsistance from any person, or other books than those I have mentioned; so that whatever merit is attached to his present performance, is exclusively and peculiary his own.

I have been the more careful to investigate these particulars and to ascertain their reality, as they form an interesting fact in the history of man, and as you may want them to gratify curiosity, I have no objection to your selecting them for your account of Benjamin. I consider this negro as a fresh proof that the powers of the mind are disconnected with the colour of the skin, or, in other words, a striking contradiction to Mr Hume's doctrine, that the negroes are naturally inferior to the whites, and

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unsusceptible of attainments in arts and sciences. every civilized country, we shall find thousands of whites liberally educated, and who have enjoyed greater opportunities of instruction than this negro, his inferiors in those intellectual acquirements and capacities, that form the most characteristic feature of the human race. But the system that would assign to these degraded blacks an origin different from the whites, if it is not ready to be. deserted by philosophers, must be relinquished, as similar instances multiply; and that such must frequently happen, cannot well be doubted, should no check impede the progrefs of humanity, which, meliorating the condition of slavery, necefsarily leads to its final extinction.Let however, the issue be what it will, I cannot but wish, on this occasion, to see the public patronage keep pace with my black friend's merit. I am, gentlemen, your most obedient servant,

JAMES M'HENRY."

ON LITERARY ENVY, &c. A LITERARY OLLA.

For the Bee.

"Nor many years ago, when I was at Datchet, I saw the justly celebrated Herschel, before he was with great propriety made a doctor of laws, as a reward for his astronomical discoveries.

"That extraordinary man, the Columbus of the heavens, [who needed no common place distinction to point the finger of universal applause,] had then twelve men by relays, working on the lathe of his great speculum, and he was attended by a groupe of curious visitors, of which I had the houour to compose a part.

"All eyes and tongues were busy.

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"After much, and, no doubt, very judicious and satisfactory investigation, one of the groupe, who seemed to be a very sage astronomer, whispered softly in my ear, 'What a lucky fellow Herschel is! — I gave him the hint of this thirty years ago, in the pump room at Bath; and now he keeps all his devices to himself in mystery, like a Jacob Bhemen, and gives out chapters, and views, and stratums of the stars, as Mahomet gave his disciples chapters of the Koran, after having been carried up by Gabriel to the seventh heaven.

"Ay! (says another,) Do ten stesen kay ton kosmon kinese." Read the president's speech on the reflecting telescope, and you will see to whom the world is obliged for all these rarefbows.

"Will this ever lead to the discovery of the longitude?" (said a third,) It is the philosophy of astronomy, Sir! The real use of astronomy, Sir! to which I direct my attention.-I freely confefs I am no hand at magick lanthorns.'

"I remember when I was in China, (said a fourth,) that I heard the rationale of the thing from a missionary at Pekin, and Sir Isaac Newton, you know, speaks of the application of a microscope to the catoptric telescope.

"He imagines that the new planet must have satellites, but the devil a satellite there is to be seen about it! Ap-x upon rationales and analogies!-Will the man limit the variety of the universe!" (said another.)

"I was silent as death; but in the midst of all this chattering, in bounced a worthy honest looking country gentleman, in a blue coat and scarlet neck, with a hunting cap, and his whip in his hand; and he came up in the frankest, and pleasantest manner imaginable, putting the whole company to profound silence, with "What, what gentleman? what are you about now?

difsecting poor Herschel, and driving him out of your system like a comet.

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"I have a large family, and enough to do in the world; but he shall have the use of my rooms and my purse too, gentlemen, to carry on his improvements!

"One can't make an astronomer every day, as one can make a lord, or a bishop, or a baronet. No, no, gentlemen! no, no!"And away the worthy Nimrod went, and away went I.

ORIGINAL LETTER.

For the Bee.

Sir James Foulis to Thomas Pennant, esq.

I HAVE with great pleasure perused, oftener than once, the account of your tour through Scotland; written, not with the spirit of an adversary, that comes to spy out ́the na kedness of the land, but like an impartial observer, who can approve what is right, and blame what is amifs. There is only one point, which shall be mentioned below, in which prejudice has biafsed your judgement. Having lately looked over your first volume, on which I made some remarks, I thought it would be proper to communicate them to you; as I was persuaded you would not grudge the small expence of the postage of a letter, to learn some particulars about a country, for viewing which you had taken so much trouble.

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Old Cambus is so written by copying from the pronunciation of southern Scots, who know nothing about the matter. The true name of the place is Alt Camus, i. e. Rivulus Sinus, being so called from a rill that runs into a bay of the sea. If you you had been as fond as I am of mutton ham fried with eggs, you would not have com