VISIT TO EUROPE. Ill 



too with all his most cherished remembrances 

 and best delights, he desired there first to wit- 

 ness the inauguration of his hopes. Yet, in 

 Philadelphia, it was the opinion that his draw- 

 ings could never be engraved. In New York 

 he met with no better success. 



At length he determined to try the fate of his 

 collection in Europe, whither in 1826, he directed 

 his steps. Whether owing to rare modesty as 

 to his endowments, or an exaggerated estimate 

 of intellect on our side of the Atlantic, he seems 

 to have been overwhelmed on approaching Eng- 

 lish shores, with a sense of diffidence — " imagin- 

 ing," he says, "that every individual he was 

 about to meet might be possessed of talents 

 superior to those of any one in America!" 

 Visiting for the first time a foreign country, 

 often pictured in his imagination, its resources 

 and acquisitions magnified by contemplation, 

 regarding it moreover with peculiar interest as 

 an arena for the decision, as it were, of his 

 destiny, such feelings might naturally arise in 

 the unsophisticated heart of the American 

 woodsman. Without friend or acquaintance 

 he could not anticipate a single welcome on his 

 arrival. Soon, however, his position was such 

 as to cause all his scruples to vanish. The letters 

 of introduction which he carried speedily pro- 

 cured him a large and influential circle of Mends, 



