220 SINGULAR CHARACTER^ 



most iu democratic countries, where freedom is 

 indulged in ail the modifications of thought, 

 speech, and action, that do not infringe on the 

 laws ; and as the population of America is deri- 

 ved from almost all the nations of Europe, it must 

 imquestionably combine heterogenous qualities, 

 which have not as yet been moulded into unifor- 

 mity and sameness. What Rochester in his witty 

 poem upon nothing said ironically, ma}^, as it re- 

 spects part of the tirst, and the whole of the second 

 line, be applied in sober seriousness to the Ameri- 

 can people : 



•' French truth, Dutch protaess, British policy, 



Hibernian learning, Scotch civility, 



Spaniard's despatch, Dane s wit, are mainly seen in thee.'' 



In my last voyage on the canal, I met with an 

 old sea Captain, who appeared to unite in his 



character tlie honest bluntness and generous 



V . . ... 



frankness of a Aailor, with the characteristic in- 

 genuity and enterprising spirit of the Yankee. 

 He had before the revolution commanded sea ves- 

 sels from eastern ports. He had often double{^ 

 Cape Horn, and pursued the whale in the great 

 South Sea. He had visited many of the ports of 

 Great Britain, and every island in the West Indies 

 was familiar to him. At the breaking out of the 

 Revolutionary war, he entered ©n board a priva- 



