SOUTH AMERICA. 283 



This must sometimes act with severity upon the FOURTH 



* * JOURNEY. 



newly-arrived stranger ; and it requires more care - 

 and circumspection than I am master of to guard 

 against it. I contracted a bad and obstinate 

 cough, which did not quite leave me till I had 

 got under the regular heat of the sun, near the 

 equator. 



I may be asked, was it all good fellowship iu Society. 

 and civility during my stay in the United States ? 

 Did no forward person cause offence ? was there 

 no exhibition of drunkenness, or swearing, or 

 rudeness ; or display of conduct which disgraces 

 civilized man in other countries ? I answer, very 

 few indeed : scarce any worth remembering, and 

 none worth noticing. These are a gentle and a 

 civil people. Should a traveller, now and then in 

 the long run, witness a few of the scenes alluded 

 to, he ought not, on his return home, to adduce 

 a solitary instance or two, as the custom of the 

 country. In roving through the wilds of Guiana, I 

 have sometimes seen a tree hollow at heart, shat- 

 tered and leafless ; but I did not on that account 

 condemn its vigorous neighbours, and put down 

 a memorandum that the woods were bad ; on 

 the contrary, I made allowances : a thunder- 

 storm, the whirlwind, a blight from heaven might 

 have robbed it of its bloom, and caused its pre- 

 sent forbidding appearance. And, in leaving the 

 forest, I carried away the impression, that though 

 some few of the trees were defective, the rest 



