dour, who was instigated, it is said, by her hatred to Voltaire to benefit Crebillon, as these two authors were always looked on as rivals in the drama. His tragedy of Catilina' was now advertised, and great were the expectations of the public; the court were determined to patronize him, and the king himself furnished the requisite dresses. It was produced in 1749, and the applause was tumultuous. The public however on reading it began to retract their hasty praise, and it was objected that the tragedy was a very unfaithful picture of the manners of antient Rome, a censure which should not be passed on Crebillon as peculiarly distinguishing him from other authors of his school. Le Triumvirat' was produced when the author was eighty-one years of age, and had but indifferent success; he also began another tragedy, called 'Cromwell,' about this time, which was never completed. Crebillon died in the year 1762, and a monument was erected to his memory in the church of St. Gervois, by the order of Louis XV. The French actors also caused a magnificent service to be celebrated in the church of St. Jean de Latran in honour of the veteran dramatist, at which all the literati and most of the nobility of France attended. It is on the tragedy of Rhadamiste' (Tacitus, Annal. xii. 44, &c.), that the fame of this author rests; and in spite of the various solecisms which profound critics of the French language discover in this work, the English reader will find it more to his taste than many tragedies, the names of which are more familiar to him. The plot is highly interesting, and there is a fire in the character of 'Rhadamiste,' and a matronly dignity in that of Zenobie,' which arrests the attention of the reader, and prevents the tedium which many English readers feel in perusing a French tragedy. Those who wish to know more of Crebillon may read a chapter on this author in La Harpe's Cours de la Littérature.' The chapter is a long one, and the extracts are so copious, and the reader's attention is directed so pointedly to the remarkable passages, that he may really learn more of Crebillon by reading that critique than by perusing the author's own works. CREBILLON, CLAUDE PROSPER JOLYOT DE, son of the preceding, was born at Paris in 1707. He wrote a number of romances, which acquired a great popularity, owing, as some say, more to their extreme licentiousness than to any intrinsic merit. His strict moral character is always brought forward as a remarkable contrast to the great laxity of his writings. He was well known as a member of two convivial societies, called the Dominicaux and the Caveau, the latter of which enrolled among its names those of Piron, Collé, and Gallet. Crebillon the younger died in 1777. The remark that his fame is only owing to his obscenity does not to us seem wholly true. Indeed the very author of this remark (Biog. Univ.) makes another which tends to weaken it. He says that Crebillon is too cold a writer, and wants that warmth of colouring which is requisite to render works of a licentious nature endurable. The fact is, that his novels, in spite of their outrageous indecency, contain a most accurate picture of the motives that actuate persons in a corrupt state of society. They are rather the works of a cynic, who tears the mask off vice, than of a voluptuary, who is absorbed in its contemplation; and if we regard them in this light, their grossness may be reconciled with his strict moral character. Still however the philosophy which they inculcate is of a morbid nature (being much like that of Rochefoucault), and only those whose minds are unassailable by impurity can peruse with any profit the novels of Crebillon. CRE'CY, or (as it is frequently written in English works) CRESSY, a small town (bourg) in the department of Somme, in France, on the little river Maie, which falls into the æstuary of the Somme. It is in the midst of a territory fertile in wheat and other grain, and in grass: cattle, wool, and hemp are among the articles of trade. There are several tan-yards, and oil and corn-mills. There is a considerable forest in the neighbourhood. The population of the commune as given in Prudhomme's Dictionnaire Universel de la France, 1804, was 1207. Crécy is chiefly known by the great battle fought near it, August 26, 1346, between the English and French armies under their respective kings, Edward III. and Philippe VI. (de Valois). The English, who had been plundering Normandie, and had carried their ravages to the neighbourhood! No. 485. of Paris, were retreating when they were overtaken by the French. The force of the contending armies is usually estimated at about 30,000 English and 100,000 French: but Mr. Turner (Hist. of England during the Middle Ages, 2nd edit., Lond. 1825, vol. ii. p. 199) states the English army to have been as follows:-1st division, under the Prince of Wales (Edward the Black Prince), 800 menat-arms, 2000 archers, and 1000 Welshmen; 2nd division, under the earl of Northampton and others, 800 men-atarms, 1200 archers; 3rd division, or reserve, under the king in person, 700 men-at-arms, and 2000 archers. Allowing these numbers to have been doubled by the addition of the retainers of the men-at-arms, it will still give only 17,000 men. The English reserve was not engaged, and the king remained during the whole action at a windmill, surveying the fight and refusing to send aid, though his son, then a boy of sixteen, was hard pressed by the enemy, adding to the messenger who had entreated aid, 'Return, Sir Thomas, and tell those who sent you not to expect me while my son is alive. Tell them that I command that they let my boy win his spurs: for I wish, if God has so ordained, that the day be his own, and that the honour rest with him and those in whose care I have placed him.' The French were defeated very much through their own impetuosity and want of discipline. The butchery was dreadful, for the English, being so much inferior in number, showed no mercy. The king of Bohemia, the duke of Lorraine, the count of Alençon, brother of the king of France, the count of Flanders, eight other counts, two archbishops, and several lords and German barons, fell; and (according to the English account) 1200 knights and about 30,000 other persons. Philippe of Valois received two wounds, and was one of the last who fled. An equal or even greater number of French fell the next day in various rencontres, according to Froissart. The result of this fearful slaughter was the siege of Calais, which surrendered after a year's siege.. CREDENTIALS are the instruments which an ambassador or other diplomatic minister receives from his own government, authorizing him to appear in his diplomatic character, defining the extent of his powers, and showing to what rank of ministers he is intended to belong. The credentials are usually in the form of a closed letter, addressed to the power to which the minister is sent; but ministers are sometimes accredited by letters patent, which is the form commonly adopted when they are to be sent to a congress. A minister cannot be received in any other character than that which is given him by his credentials; and for this reason he usually communicates their contents before he is admitted to his first audience. If he is accredited by letters patent, this is done by showing the instrument itself; but if his credentials are sealed, then by presenting a copy of them. The powers granted by the credentials may either be confined to certain specified transactions, or extend generally to all negotiations whatever; and may, in either case, be either limited or unlimited; in which latter case the minister is styled a minister with full powers, or minister plenipotentiary. (Vattel, Droit des Gens, liv. iv., § 76; Klüber, Droit des Gens moderne, § 193, 194. CREDIT, in Political Economy. [BILL OF EXCHANGE. CURRENCY.] CREDITON. [DEVONSHIRE.] CREECH, THOMAS, is the translator of Lucretius, Horace, Theocritus, and detached portions of several other Greek and Latin authors, of which a list is given in Kippis's Biographia Britannica. He was born at Blandford, in Dorsetshire, in 1659, admitted of Wadham College, Oxford (of which he appears, from the title-page of his Lucretius, to have become a fellow), in 1675, and elected probationer-fellow of All Souls' in November, 1683. He published in 1682 his translation of Lucretius, which appears, on the testimony of a violent and foolish invective against the work, to have gained much credit at Oxford, and is his best work. Dryden, who himself translated parts of Lucretius, has bestowed high praise on his predecessor. (Preface to first part of Miscellanies.) Creech published a Latin edition of the same author in 1695, and a translation of Horace in 1684, the latter with very indifferent success. He was appointed to the college living of Woburn, Herts, in 1699; and two years afterwards, in June, 1701, hung himself in his chamber at Oxford. His temper was very morose, which leaves room to ascribe this act to some constitutional infirmity. CREED, from the Latin credo (I believe), the English name for those short summaries of Christian doctrine which in the continental churches are commonly called symbols, though sometimes also credos. The English church adopts, as thoroughly to be received and believed,' the three antient creeds, called the Apostles' creed, the Athanasian creed, and the Nicene creed; but it does not assert any of them to be inspired, nor does it even affirm the first-mentioned to have been actually drawn up by the apostles; it only says of them generally that they may be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scripture.' (Art. viii.) The Catholic church adopts along with these what is called the creed of the council of Constantinople, which contains some addition to what is said in the Nicene creed on the subject of the divinity of the Holy Ghost. Many other similar formulæ have been received at different times in particular churches. CREEK is a small inlet on a low sandy coast. Such inlets occur also frequently in harbours inclosed by a low shore and along the banks of rivers. Sometimes, especially in harbours, creeks are formed by the mouths of small brooks and rivulets. In large rivers creeks are resorted to by small craft as harbours or landing places, and they are often visited by fish in spawning time. In the United States the name creek is very generally applied to small inland streams, which in England would be called brooks or rivers. however, thus united by close affinities, and as such generally brought together by systematic writers into one conterminous series, are decidedly divisible into two distinct groups, naturally arranging themselves under different subdivisions of the order. The family of Certhiada, as we have seen above, live upon animal food; while the remaining genera of the Linnæan Certhia subsist chiefly upon vegetable juices. The tongues of each, though similar in being more or less extensible, and in being the medium through which they are supplied with food, are equally distinct as the nature of the food itself. Those of the former are sharp, and of a spear-like form, as if to transfix the insects which are their prey; while those of the latter are divided into tubular filaments, which appear exclusively adapted to the purposes of suction. In other particulars they exhibit an equal difference. The Certhiada climb, and their feet are of a conformable structure; but the feet of the suctorial birds are not only in general unsuited to that purpose, but they become gradually weaker, and of less use as they come nearer the type of the tribe, where they are so short and slightly formed, as to be serviceable only in perching, when the bird is at rest..... The two groups of the Linnæan Certhia are disposed in the separate departments to which the distinct nature of their food and habits more immediately unites them; while at the same time, by their forming the extremes of their respective tribes, and touching each other at the corresponding points of the circles in which they are arranged, their obvious affinities are preserved inviolate.' CREEK INDIANS were, at the beginning of the pre- Having thus shown that, according to Mr. Vigors, the sent century, one of the most powerful native tribes within Certhiade on one side lead the way to the Tenuirostral the limits of the United States of America. They occupied group, we must go back a little to make the reader acnearly all the countries lying north of 31° N. lat. between quainted with its true place, in the opinion of Mr. Vigors, the Flint river, the eastern branch of the Chatahoochee, among the Scansorial birds. The strong affinity, he oband the Tombigbee or western branch of the Mobile river, serves, between the Picide (wood-peckers) and the Cerand did not permit Europeans to settle west of the Flint. thiada, in their general habits of climbing and of feeding They then occupied a large part of the state of Georgia, by their extensile tongue, needs no illustration. The dif and more than half of that of Alabama. In 1802 and 1805 ference in the form of the typical bill of Picus, and that of they ceded the north-western portion of their territories to the true Certhia, the former straight and powerful, the the United States; but in 1813 they joined their arms with latter curved and slender, is softened down by the interventhose of the Spaniards in Florida against them, and were tion of the genus Dendrocolaptes, Herm., which, as it only defeated and subjected by a very destructive war in 1814. stands at present, includes some groups (Dendrocolaptes Though their number was much reduced by this war, it was Picus) where the bill is as strong and as straight as in still estimated at 20,000, of which number about one- Picus; others (D. scandens), where the bill, still retaining fourth were warriors. At this period they were obliged to its strength, becomes gradually curved; and others (D. progive up all the countries west of the river Coosa, a branch curvus), where the bill still further deviating from the type of the Alabama. In 1826 those of them who inhabited of the genus to which it belongs, assumes the full curve that portion of Georgia which lies between the Flint river and slenderness of the bill of the typical Certhia. The and the Chatahoochee sold their lands and retired to the Linnæan Pici, he remarks, include some species where the banks of the Arkansas, where a tract of land was assigned bill loses the straight and angulated form, and becomes to them by the general government. Many of them are curved and compressed; and these, of which Picus auratus, said to have emigrated to the Mexican state of Texas. Of Linn., is the representative (Colaptes, Swainson), show in their former territories the Creeks occupy at present only this particular a clear approximation to the true Creepers; the north-eastern corner of Alabama, together with a small while the latter exhibit an equal contiguity to the former, number of Cherokees. They have made considerable in some of the aberrant groups of the family, which retain progress in civilization, having entirely abandoned a wan- the stiff shafts of the tail-feathers so remarkable in the true dering life, and inhabiting fixed places. They have large Pici. The conformation of the foot of the Certhiada, shows flocks of cattle, and cultivate grain, maize, potatoes, and a deviation from the perfect structure of the more typical some roots and vegetables: they also have different kinds Scansores, distinguishes them as an aberrant group of the of domestic manufactures. They have schools established tribe, and calls for a separation. In the Certhiade the among them. Their language is a dialect of the so-called foot is not strictly scansorial; but though they have not Floridian language, which is spoken by all the tribes south two posterior toes like the Picidæ, the single hind toe of of the Tenessee river, and as far west as the Mississippi. The the Certhiade is considerably longer and stronger than it Seminole Indians in Florida are called Lower Creeks. The is in the generality of Perchers. name Creeks was given to them by the first settlers. They call themselves Muskogees. а 'In addition,' continues Mr. Vigors, to Dendroco aptes, already mentioned, and the true Certhia of the present CREEPER (Zoology). Creeper-family, Certhiada. A day, the family before us consists of a variety of genera family of birds placed by Mr. Vigors under his order Scan- strongly united by their corresponding habits. Among sores or climbing birds. The genus Certhia,' writes that these, Climacteris, Temm., and Orthonyx, Temm., preserve author (Linn. Trans., vol. xiv., p. 461), 'as originally insti- the strong shafts of the tail-feathers, which are carried on to tuted by Linnæus, contained, besides the true Certhia and them from the true Pici. This construction gradually disits congeners which form the extreme family of the pre-appears in the remaining groups of the family; but the ceding tribe (Picida), all those birds whose slender and strong hind toe, and the tongue more or less extensile, and gradually curved bills and delicate formation of body, serving to spear their prey, is still conspicuous. Among added to their practice of employing their tongues in taking such groups we may particularize the Tichodroma, Ill., and their food, indicated a strong affinity to each other, and which Upupa, Linn., together with the Linnæan Sitta, and the have since been particularized by authors under the various conterminous form of Xenops, Ill. Here also may be asnames of Nectarinia, Cinnyris, Drepanis, &c. To the sociated the Opetiorhynchus and Anabates of M. Temminck, group thus known and described by the Swedish naturalist, as also the Oxyrhynchus of the same author. This genus later ornithologists, who have strictly followed his steps, may be observed to be connected with those groups of the have added another, discovered since his time in Austra-present family which are united with the genus Vunx of lasia, similar in habits and manners, and now distinguished the preceding; it is a perfect Wryneck, as justly asserted by the generic title of Meliphaga. The whole of the birds, by M. Temminck, with a Creeper's foot. I wish not, how ever, to enter into the affinities of these groups. We know but little of them as yet: and every day is bringing in fresh subjects, and fresh information on a department of the class which has hitherto, I know not why, attracted but little attention.' Mr. Swainson (Fauna Boreali Americana, vol. ii.) places the genus Troglodytes (wrens) among the Certhiade, which family he also places under the Scansores. Cuvier, the Prince of Musignano, and Lesson, arrange the Certhiade under the Tenuirostres, and the following are the genera which M. Lesson enumerates. Family character.-Bill sometimes very much curved, sometimes but little, sometimes nearly straight, rounded, slightly compressed, pointed; tongue simple, cartilaginous at the extremity; tail-feathers generally worn at the end. (Lesson.) Genera. Certhia. Geographical Distribution.-Britain and the Continent of Europe. Pennant says, that it migrates to Italy in September and October. Latham states, that it is found in various parts of Germany and elsewhere on the Continent, and is also said to inhabit North America. This is confirmed by the Prince of Musignano, who, in his Specchio Comparativo, notes it as common and permanent near Rome, and rare near Philadelphia. Temminck is of opinion that the Certhia brachydactyla of Brehm is identical with Certhia familiaris. Tichodroma (Petrodroma, Vieill.). Bill longer than the head, triangular at the base, slightly Bill moderately long, more or less curved, triangular, bent, rounded, entire, and depressed at the point; nostrils compressed, slender, pointed; nostrils basal, partially closed horizontal; tail-feathers nearly equal, with ordinary shafts; by a membrane; wings short, fourth quill longest; tail-wings long, fourth, fifth, and sixth quill the longest. Exfeathers stiff, a little curved, pointed at the end. Example, ample, Tichodroma muraria, C. Bonap.; Tichodroma phoCerthia familiaris, Linn. nicoptera, Temm.; Certhia muraria, Linn. Description.-Summit of the head of a deep ash colour; nape, back, and scapulars bright ash; throat and front of the neck deep black; lower parts blackish ash; coverts of the wings and upper part of the exterior barbs of the quills bright red; extremity of the alar quills black: these quills have two large white spots disposed upon the interior barbs; tail black, terminated with white and ash; bill, iris, and feet black; length six inches six lines. Such is Temminck's description of the male in its nuptial or spring dress. The female, according to the same author, has the summit of the head of the same bright ash as the back; the throat and front of the neck white, slightly tinged with ash; and the rest of the plumage like that of the male. This bird is the Grimpereau de muraille, Pic de muraille, Ternier, Eschelette and Echelette of the French; Picchio muraiolo and Picchio di muro of the Italians; Mauer Buum laufer of the Germans, and Wall-creeper of Latham. Description.-Bill about half an inch long, slender an curved; head and neck above, streaked with black an! yellow-brown; a white line above each eye; irides hazel; back, rump, and scapulars approaching to tawny; quill; dusky, tipped and edged with white or light brown; coverts dusky brown and yellowish-white, producing a variegated appearance; a yellowish-white bar across the wing; breast and belly silvery white; tail-feathers twelve, tawny brown; length rather more than five inches; weight about two drams (Montagu), Pennant says five drams. The Creeper, Common Creeper, Tree-creeper and Treeclimber, Certhia familiaris, Linn., is, according to Belon and others, the Kép0os (Certhius) of Aristotle (book ix., c. 17); it is Le Grimpereau of the French; Picchio piccolo, Picchietto, Rampichino and Piccio rampichino of the modern Italians; Baumlaufer, Kleinere Grau-Specht, or Kleinste Baum-Häcker of the Germans; Krypare of the Fauna Suecica; and y Grepianog of the antient British. Habits.-The creeper is a most restless and active little bird, ever on the alert, and climbing up and about the trunks and branches of trees intent on picking up its insect food. Though comparatively common, and a constant resident in Britain, it is not easily seen; for its activity in shifting its position makes it very difficult to follow it with the eye. At one instant it is before the spectator, and the next is hidden from his view by the intervening trunk or branch to the opposite side of which it has passed in a moment. The form of the tail and organization of the feet are beautiful adaptations for this sort of rapid locomotion. Its note is monotonous, and often repeated. [Tichodroma muraria.] Geographical Distribution.-South of Europe. Tolerably abundant in Spain and Italy, always on the most elevated rocks, and very rare in the mountains of moderate height. Never found in the north, according to Temminck. The bird is common in Provence; and the Prince of Musignano notes it as permanent and rather rare near Rome, where it may, however, be seen creeping on the outward walls of St. Peter's. It is not a British bird, at least it has never been recorded as such. Habits, Food, Nest, &c. -Temminck says that what the Creeper does upon trees the Wall-creeper does against the vertical faces of rocks, on which it sticks firmly (se cram ponment fortement), without, however, mounting and de-, The bird moults twice a year. It is in the spring only that the male has the black on the throat, and this ornament disappears before the other feathers fall. The females moult also twice, but without changing colour, which makes it impossible to distinguish the sexes after pairing and breeding time. The young may be distinguished from their parents before their first moult, but in winter no difference is observable. (Temminck.) Dendrocolaptes (Dendrocopus, Vieill.) Bill long or moderate, compressed laterally, rather strong, convex, straight or curved, or only curved towards the extremity, pointed; Nostrils lateral, round, open; Tongue short and cartilaginous. Third, fourth and fifth quills the longest. Tail-feathers stiff, pointed. Hind toe shortest; claws very much curved, channelled. Example, Dendrocolaptes procurvus, Temm. D. trochilorostris, Wied. Locality, Brazil. Description.-Size of the blackbird. Bill strongly curved and nearly twenty lines long. Tail graduated and each feather terminated by a stiff point. General colour cinnamon, passing into dirty ruddy grey on the head and belly. There are numerous white spots on the head and neck. which, as well as the hallux, are extraordinarily long; claws large and curved, channelled on the sides, subulate, very much hooked; external toe united up to the second articulation, the internal toe as far as the first; lateral toes very unequal. Wings moderate; first quill short, second shorter than the third, which last and the fourth are the longest. (Temminck.) Example, Climacteris Picumnus. Description.-Summit of the head deep-grey; nape and neck bright grey. Wings and two middle feathers of the tail brown; a large nankeen-coloured band passes nearly through the middle of the quills. Tail-feathers black, except at their origin and extremity. Throat and cheeks dirty white. Breast grey. Feathers of the lower parts white in the middle, bordered with brown. Lower coverts of the tail Isabella-colour, marked with transverse brown spots. Length six inches six lines. (Temm.) Locality, Timor, Celebes, and the North coast of Australia. This genus bears a strong relation to the Soui-mangas. Furnarius (Opetiorhynchos), Temm. Figulus, Spix. Bill shorter than the head, as wide as it is high, compressed laterally, but little curved, entire, pointed; Tongue moderate, straight, worn at the point. Wings feeble. (Vieillot.) Type, Merops rufus, Gmel. Example, Furnarius fuliginosus, Lesson. Certhia antarctica, Garnot. [Furnarius rufus.] 6 was esta The genus Furnarius, writes M. Lesson, blished by M. Vieillot for the reception of some small birds of Paraguay, the most celebrated among which have been placed among the Thrushes, the Creepers, the Bee-eaters and the Promeropida. The most antiently known, the Fournier of Buenos Ayres (Merops rufus, Gm. Figulus albogularis, Spix), is often noticed on account of the manner in which it constructs its nest, viz. : in the form of an oven (four), whence comes its name. On this point we know nothing of the habits of the Fournier brun, which lives in South America, and which approaches much in other respects to Merops rufus, figured by Commerson under the and which is said to be an object of veneration at La Plata. name of Hornero Bonariensium and of Turdus furnifaber, As it ought to be, the genus Furnarius should only contain the three species indicated by D'Azara, and that which we add under the name of Furnarius fuliginosus. 'This bird is five inches and a half in length; the bill is eight lines long, the tarsi an inch, and the tail two inches eight lines. The bill is slightly compressed, convex above, with the upper mandible slightly curved, entire, and exceeding the lower one. The tail is nearly rectilinear, composed of twelve feathers. The legs are feathered down to the tarsi, which are slender, elongated, with large but little apparent scutella. The middle toe is longest; the two outside ones nearly equal in length, and the external toe is united with the middle toe at its base. The claw of the posterior toe is double the length of the anterior toes, which are very much compressed at the sides, curved, and pointed. The entire plumage of the bird is a clear fuliginous brown spread equally over all the parts of the body, the neck alone exhibits yellow and brown ill-defined striæ. The under side of the tail is of a bright grey-brown. A yellow band of deeper tint occupies the middle of the great quills, and forms a kind of scarf when the bird is in flight; the extremity of the quills is a little deeper than the rest of the plumage, and their external border is a shade brighter.' (Lesson.) Locality.-Furnarius fuliginosus inhabits the Malouine islands. It lives upon the beach, where its familiarity and fearless disposition permits approach till it may be almost touched with the hand. Its sombre plumage has caused it to be mentioned under the name of Merle in the narratives of some voyages. Pernetty, who sojourned at the Malouines, thus describes it: This bird is so tame that it will almost fly upon the finger; in less than half an hour I killed ten with a small switch, and almost without changing my position. It scratches in the goëmons (fucus) which the sea throws upon the beach, and there eats worms and small shrimps, which they call sea-fleas (puces de mer).' Its flight is short. When disturbed it contents itself with flying two or three paces farther off. Its habits are solitary.' (Lesson.) CREES and CHIPPEWAYS. These constitute at present one of the most numerous and most widely extended of the aboriginal nations which inhabit the interior of North America. The Crees, formerly called by the French Knistineaux, inhabit the shores of Hudson's Bay from Moose River, which falls into the south-western corner of James Bay, to the mouth of Churchill River (about 59° N. lat.), and hence they extend westward to the Athabasca Lake, and to the plains which lie betwixt the forks of the Saskat chewan, near Carlton House. They do not extend to the Rocky Mountains, the plains lying along the base of this range being in possession of a branch of the Assinneboin Indians, who are of the Sioux stock, and speak the language of the Iroquois or Hurons. The Chippeways inhabit the country about Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior. But it seems that many other tribes belong to the same stock as the Crees; for all the nations which are within the limits of the United States north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi speak languages which may be considered only as dialects of that spoken by the Crees and Chippeways. [ALGONQUINS.] The Lennapi, one of these tribes, have a tradition amongst them, that 'their ancestors, coming from the westward, took possession of the whole country from the Missouri to the Atlantic, after driving away or destroying the original inhabitants of the land, whom they termed Alligewi. In this migration and contest, which endured for a series of years, the Mengwe or Iroquois kept pace with them, moving in a parallel but more northern line, and finally settling on the banks of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes from whence it flows.' (Richardson in Franklin's First Journey.) M'Keevor gives the following description of this race:-"They are, for the most part, tall, large-boned, and longvisaged, with very prominent features; the eye is penetrating, and of a deep black colour; the nose prominent, of an aquiline shape, not at all flattened; the forehead is short and straight; mouth large, but lips not at all everted; hair uniformly of a shining black, straight and coarse, having no disposition whatever to curl. When viewed in profile, the parts appear more deeply and distinctly marked than in the Esquimeaux. The ear is not placed so far back on the head, nor is the space between the eyes at all so great as in the last-mentioned nation. The general expression of the countenance is gloomy and severe. They have little hair on their chin or upper lip, owing to its being eradicated immediately on its first appearance. The females differ considerably both in person and features from the men, being short, small-boned, with the face approaching more to the rounded form. They have, for the most part, an expression of mildness and sweetness in their looks.' The Crees, like the other tribes of North America, live upon the produce of the chace and the fisheries in the numerous lakes and rivers by which their country is watered. No kind of agriculture has been introduced among them, as among those tribes that inhabit the southern portions of the United States. This is chiefly to be ascribed to the general sterility of the countries which they inhabit, and partly to the rigour of the climate. Even in the European north of Carlton House, on the Saskatchewan, and at the settlements no attempt to sow and plant has been made latter place only on a small scale. The hardships to which their manner of life frequently exposes them, and the want of food for some weeks together, sometimes compel them to commit cannibalism. Instances of this kind are on record, even of parents having fed on their own children; but these extreme cases are of rare occurrence. They commonly evince a strong affection for their offspring, and bewail for a length of time the loss of their relations. Europeans are very little acquainted with the language of the Crees. M'Keevor has added a short vocabulary to his voyage. Dr. Richardson collected a copious and valuable vocabulary, which is still unpublished. Mr. J. Howse of Cirencester, who was in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company for twenty years, is now preparing, under the sanction of the London Geographical Society, a grammar of the Cree language, which will, we feel confident, throw a new light on the structure of the Cree and all the cognate languages of the North American continent. (Hearne, Richardson, M'Keevor, Voyage to Hudson's Bay.) CREFELD, a minor circle in the Prussian province of Düsseldorf, lying on the left bank of the Rhine, and bounded on the north and west by the province of Cleves. Its area is about 88 square miles; the surface is completely level, and the soil, though in parts light and sandy, is productive, and very favourable for the cultivation of rye, oats, and buckwheat, flax and fruit. The Rhine skirts it in the east, and the Nierse in the west. The arable land consists of about 45,000 acres, which form above three-fourths of the whole surface. Agriculture is the chief employment of the inhabitants; and next to this the rearing of cattle, and manufacturing, which last is principally carried on in and about the town of Crefeld. The circle contains three towns (Crefeld, 19,000 inhabitants; Uerdingen, 2200; and Linn, 980), twenty-two villages, and twenty-one hamlets. The population was in 1816, 32,069; in 1826, 35,446; and in 1831, 37,611. CREFELD, the chief town of the circle, lies in a low marshy situation, and was surrounded with walls and ditches as early as the year 1373; 51° 20' N. lat., and 6° 32′ E. long. It is well and regularly built, and being encircled by gardens and country seats, is one of the prettiest spots in this part of Germany. The houses are about 1600 in number, and the inhabitants about 19,000: in 1784 they were 5800, in 1816, 9839; and in 1831, 18,738. The town contains a Roman Catholic church, two Protestant churches, a synagogue, and a place of worship for the Mennonites, of whom there are about 800; an orphan asylum, hospitals, a house of correction, and a school in which girls are taught all kinds of female labours. The manufactures to which Crefeld is indebted for its prosperity were set on foot by the Protestants, who sought refuge here from religious persecution at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries. The chief branches of these manufactures are silks and |