11 



the pen of a Russian gentleman, which is a perfect daguerreo- 

 type picture of him and his surroundings, giving us an equally 

 life-like sketch of the inner as of the outer man.* 



* As this paper is a literary curiosity, we copy a letter from " the 

 honourable and venerable Samuel Breck, of Philadelphia," to be found in 

 a note at page 44 of the memorials, which gives the following account of 

 Hector Saint John de Crevecoeur, who published letters as an American 

 Farmer, and is now ascertained to have once appeared as Iwan Alexio- 

 witz, the Kussian gentleman referred to. 



" In the year 1787 (says Mr. Breck) I arrived at Paris from the Royal 

 and Military College of Soreze, in the then province of Languedoc, where 

 I had spent more than four years. Thomas Jefferson, who was our 

 plenipotentiary at the Court of Louis XVI., was travelling in Italy. A 

 young Virginian, Mr. Short, received me in the minister's name, being 

 his secretary, and made me acquainted with a very amiable Frenchman, 

 who had resided in the United States, and written there a work, entitled, 

 'Letters from an American Farmer/ flattering and favourable to our 

 country. This gentleman was Hector Saint John de Crevecoeur. His 

 work was exceedingly popular in France, and the fame acquired by it 

 was a passport to the highest circles. The romantic descriptions in which 

 he had indulged, in reference to the manners and primitive habits of our 

 countrymen, made some of the great lords and ladies of Paris desirous 

 to see a native American : among others a Polish princess took a fancy to 

 see me, upon St. John's report to her of his acquaintance with me, and 

 invited me to dine with her. I went there accompanied by Mons. 

 Crevecoeur. 



" That gentleman took me another day to dine with Mons. De Beaume- 

 noir, at his apartments at the Hotel des Invalides, of which he was gover- 

 nor, and who had a daughter about to embark for New York, in the same 

 packet that Mr. De Crevecceur and I had both taken passage. She was 

 coming out to America, under St. John's protection, to marry M. De La 

 Forest, who was then French consul at New York, and afterwards became 

 a man of some note, as a diplomatist under Napoleon, who raised him to 

 the dignity of a baron of his empire. St. John himself had been made 

 consul-general by King Louis. 



" That kind friend took me, one morning, to visit Brissot De "Warville, 

 who served Philip d'Egalite (father of king Louis Phillippe) in some 

 capacity, and had apartments at his residence, the Palais Royal. There 

 we were received by Brissot. The Marquis de Valady, son-in-law of the 

 Marquis de Vaudreuil, presented me with a copy of St. John's letters, 

 which I still possess. St. John was by nature, by education, and by his 

 writings, a philanthropist ; a man of serene temper and pure benevolence ; 

 the milk of human kindness circulated in every vein ; of manners unas- 

 suming, prompt to serve, slow to censure ; intelligent, beloved, and highly 



