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1826.) British Travellers in America. 611 
have Sho RES but. to. be talked of—such men as book-makers and 
Pavitt: 
But enough on this head. “Let us return to our noble author. He 
Z0es out of the way to speak of gouging, and you would supp s08e—if "you 
did not. search his book as I did, with a particular design to see whether 
he spoke of his own knowledge or from hearsay—that the thing was a 
matter of daily, if not of hourly occurrence, by the very, way-side i in 
America. And. yet, if you pursue the search as I did, you will find that 
he neyer saw a case, nor ever met with any proof; that, like Weld, 
whom. I have quoted above, he spoke from report—vague, idle report, 
which he picked up, not in the neighbourhood of the places where 
gouging is thought to preyail, but a good way off! Now, every body 
knows that people who are most afraid of a strange practice or evil— 
as of; earthquake, or famine, or fire—of the yellow fever, the plague, 
or prize fighting, or whatever you like, are those who live a prea way 
off, and know little or nothing about the matter. Of such a report you 
may; say (in verses worthy of being taught with the elements of 
Janguage to our children)—the further it goes the bigger it grows. 
Wel!—such was the book, and such the testimony of the French author, 
whose work, after a time, was re-published here with notes by the 
translator—an Englishman, a very clever, shrewd, observing writer, who 
appears to have heen a good while in ain: er to be rather partial 
than otherwise to the ‘country and the people; and yet he—even he, 
while he is occupied in correcting the errors of the French author, adds 
‘the following note to the passage alluded to above, wherein Chastilleux 
speaks of gouging —“ This is no traveller’s exaggeration: I speak from 
knowledge and observation.” After which, to prove that his Sahin ig 
right, and. that he. himself speaks from knowledge and observation, he 
proceeds, to relate a story, the whole amount of which is—not that he 
had ever~seen a case of the kind occur, not that he had ever seen a 
fellow-creature who had suffered by the practice, or that he was 
able to testify from either “ actual observation or knowledge,” that such 
ferocity was common, but merely that “ once upon a time,” he, with a 
_party, of friends, were intruded upon while they were out in the woods 
of America by another party, the leader of which had but one eye ; 
that a quarrel was offered by the one-eyed savage and his tribe, and that 
pe quarrel was had, no fight, no contest at all! Such is the pteas ate 
Jo51i 
e Patt his own Andariucloint as he passed through Maryland and 
38 what ?—instances of what ?—of gouging? No—but of 
men being confined to their bed from the injuries which they had 
this nature in a fight.” 
ow, my dear P,, I should not care much for the words of a writer, if 
his s credit were good and his meaning clear, though he should happen to 
“betray a iUpeltuity of faith; nor should I care a fig for the word of 
Mr. Weld, when he speaks of gouning, were it not for the musquito 
4. 
