the directions which were necessary to enable me to join the regiment. But before he went, my father, who was equally charmed with his generosity and manners, pressed him to take back part of the money he had given us; this, however, he absolutely refused, and left us, full of esteem and admiration.
"I will not, gentlemen, repeat the affecting scene I had to undergo in taking leave of my family and friends. It pierced me to the very heart; and then, for the first time, I almost repented of being so near the accomplishment of my wishes. I was, however, engaged, and determined to fulfil my engagement; I therefore tore myself from my family, having with difficulty prevailed upon my father to accept of part of the money I had received for my enrolment. I will not trespass upon your time to describe the various emotions which I felt from the crowd of new sensations that entered my mind during our march. I arrived without any accident in London, the splendid capital of this kingdom; but I could not there restrain my astonishment to see an immense people talking of wounds, of death, of battles, sieges, and conquests, in the midst of feasts, and balls, and puppet-shows, and calmly devoting thousands of their fellow-creatures to perish by famine or the sword, while they considered the loss of a dinner, or the endurance of a shower, as an exertion too great for human fortitude.
"I soon embarked, and arrived, without any other accident than a horrible sickness, at the place of our destination in America. Here I joined my gallant officer, Colonel Simmons, who had performed the voyage in another ship."—(Miss Simmons, who was
present at this narration, seemed to be much interested at this mention of her own name; she, however, did not express her feelings, and the stranger proceeded with his story.)—"The gentleman was, with justice, the most beloved, and the most deserving to be so, of any officer I have ever known. Inflexible in everything that concerned the honour of the service, he never pardoned wilful misbehaviour, because he knew that it was incompatible with military discipline; yet, when obliged to punish, he did it with such reluctance that he seemed to suffer almost as much as the criminal himself. But, if his reason imposed this just and necessary severity, his heart had taught him another lesson in respect to private distresses of his men; he visited them in their sickness, relieved their miseries, and was a niggard of nothing but human blood. But I ought to correct myself in that expression, for he was rashly lavish of his own, and to that we owe his untimely loss.
"I had not been long in America before the colonel, who was perfectly acquainted with the language and manners of the savage tribes that border upon the British colonies, was sent on an embassy to one of their nations, for the purpose of soliciting their alliance with Britain. It may not, perhaps, be uninteresting to you, gentlemen, and to this my honourable little master, to hear some account of a people whose manners and customs are so much the reverse of what you see at home. As my worthy officer, therefore, contented with my assiduity and improvement in military knowledge, permitted me to have the honour of attending him, I will describe some of the most curious facts which I was witness to.
"You have, doubtless, heard many accounts of the surprising increase of the English colonies in America; and when we reflect that it is scarcely a hundred years since some of them were established, it must be confessed that they have made rapid improvements in clearing the ground of woods and bringing it to cultivation. Yet, much as they have already done, the country is yet an immense forest, except immediately on the coasts. The forests extend on every side to a distance that no human sagacity or observation has been able to determine; they abound in every species of tree which you see in England, to which may be added a great variety more which are unknown with us. Under their shade is generally found a rich luxurious herbage, which serves for pasture to a thousand herds of animals. Here are seen elks (a kind of deer of the largest size), and buffaloes (a species of wild ox), by thousands, and even horses, which, having been originally brought over by the Spaniards, have escaped from their settlements and multiplied in the woods."
"Dear!" said Tommy, "that must be a fine country, indeed, where horses run wild; why, a man might have one for nothing." "And yet," said Mr Merton, "it would be but of little use for a person to have a wild horse, who is not able to manage a tame one."
Tommy made no answer to his father; and the man proceeded. "But the greatest curiosity of all this country is, in my opinion, the various tribes or nations which inhabit it. Bred up from their infancy to a life of equal hardiness with the wild animals, they are almost as robust in their constitutions. These vari
ous tribes inhabit little villages, which generally are seated upon the banks of rivers; and, though they cultivate small portions of land around their towns, they seek the greater part of their subsistence from the chase. In their persons they are rather tall and slender, but admirably well-proportioned and active, and their colour is a pale red, exactly resembling copper. Thus accustomed to roam about the woods, and brave the inclemencies of the weather, as well as continually exposed to the attacks of their enemies they acquire a degree of courage and fortitude which can scarcely be conceived. It is nothing to them to pass whole days without food; to be whole nights upon the bare damp ground, and to swim the widest rivers in the depth of winter. Money, indeed, and the greatest part of what we call the conveniences of life, they are unacquainted with; nor can they conceive that one man should serve another merely because he has a few pieces of shining metal; they imagine that the only distinctions arise from superior courage and bodily perfections, and therefore these alone are able to engage their esteem. A celebrated traveller relates that, on one occasion, while he was engaged in finishing a drawing, he was suddenly interrupted by three of these curious-looking persons entering the room in which he was. At first he feared that they intended to attack him; but he soon found that he was mistaken, for, upon their seeing the representation of themselves upon a sheet which he had taken the day before, and which one of them took up, they immediately burst into a loud fit of laughter, while one of them offered to purchase it by giving some fruit in exchange.
"But if their manners are gentle in peace, they are more dreadful, when provoked, than all the wildest animals of the forest. Bred up from infancy to suffer no restraint, and to give an unbounded loose to the indulgence of their passions, they know not what it is to forgive those who have injured them. They love their tribe with a degree of affection that is totally unknown in every other country; for they are ready to suffer every hardship and danger in its defence. They scruple not in the least to experience wounds, and pain, and even death itself, as often as the interest of the country to which they are so much attached is concerned; but the same attachment renders them implacable and unforgiving to all their enemies. In short, they seem to have all the virtues and the vices of the ancient Spartans.