CHARACTERS OF TRAVELLERS, 19 



friend s argument, to be of weight, requires the British to 

 have been under-fed, a circumstance not likely to have occur 

 red ; but in American warfare, when men are often armed with 

 rifles and masked by trees, strength and courage are not brought 

 into play. While the Americans fight in their own country, in 

 defence of wives, families, and property, notwithstanding their 

 liberty and equality notions, and want of discipline, they will 

 always prove an overmatch for hireling soldiers of any nation. 

 But place them in a foreign land, amidst pestilence and priva 

 tion, with no incentives to exertion but a miserable pittance 

 called pay and frivolous glory, I doubt if they would display 

 deeds of greatness and valour as Britons have often done. 



We had not been long seated in the railway coach, when 

 the Englishman became the butt of some Americans, who 

 crammed him with such absurdities, that he must have return 

 ed home, which he shortly intended doing, with very erroneous 

 ideas of the States; and the quickness with which his charac 

 ter was discovered by the Americans did credit to their dis 

 crimination. The tenor of a foreigner s conversation with the 

 natives on his first arrival is an index to his understanding, 

 and the information he receives is often made to accord with 

 his capacity and feelings instead of truth. Without sound 

 judgment to discriminate and appreciate information, the glean 

 ings and impressions of a traveller must be as apt to mislead 

 as instruct others, and his lucubrations will often be found 

 more illustrative of his own character than of the people and 

 country he visits. We took up our residence at the Mansion- 

 house hotel, Philadelphia, kept by Mr Head ; but it did not 

 seem to warrant the praises bestowed on it by some travellers, 

 meal hours not being regularly kept ; and the bed of my friend 

 was preoccupied by a set of mischievous natives, which fortu 

 nately in no instance paid their respects to me. 



While walking after tea, a funeral passed by, which was the 

 first I had seen on American soil. A hearse moved slowly 

 along the side of the street, accompanied by about thirty men 

 walking two and two on the pavement, dressed in coloured 

 clothes, without crape on hat or arm ; then followed six or seven 

 females, each supported by a gentleman, and both sexes were 

 dressed in black garments, and seemed to be near relations of 



