WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 267 



"He sprained his foot, and hurt his toe, 

 On the rough road near Buffalo. 

 It quite distresses him to stagger a- 

 Long the sharp rocks of famed Niagara, 

 So thus he's doomed to drink the measure 

 Of pain, in lieu of that of pleasure. 

 On Hope's delusive pinions borne, 

 He came for wool, and goes back shorn. 

 N. B. — Here he alludes to nothing but 

 Th' adventure of his toe and foot; 

 Save this, — he sees all that which can 

 Delight and charm the soul of man, 

 But feels it not, — because his toe 

 And foot together plague him so." 



I remember once to have sprained my ankle 

 very violently, many years ago, and that the doc- 

 tor ordered me to hold it under the pump two or 

 three times a day. Now, in the United States of 

 America, all is upon a grand scale, except taxa- 

 tion; and I am convinced that the traveller's 

 ideas become much more enlarged as he journeys 

 through the country. This being the case, I can 

 easily account for the desire I felt to hold my 

 sprained foot under the fall of Niagara. I de- 

 scended the winding staircase which has been 

 made for the accommodation of travellers, and 

 then hobbled on to the scene of action. As T 

 held my leg under the fall, I tried to meditate 

 on the immense difference there was betwixt a 

 house-pump and this tremendous cascade of na- 

 ture, and what effect it might have upon the 

 sprain ; but the magnitude of the subject was too 

 overwhelming, and I was obliged to drop it. 



Perhaps, indeed, there was an unwarrantable 

 tincture of vanity in an unknown wanderer wish- 



