2 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



highly commendable, no doubt, is likewise ex- 

 tremely natural. In truth, when a man has had 

 the courage to cast himself away, if I may use the 

 expression, in countries remote, uninhabited, or, 

 what is still worse, inhabited by nations whose rude 

 or half- formed civilization is infinitely more dan- 

 gerous than the state even of savage humanity ; 

 when he has been endowed with a vigour capable 

 ofsurmounting obstacles, with the perseverance ne^ 

 cessary to overcome the difficulties which obstruct 

 his path at every step, and with the fortitude which 

 supports amidst the ills physical and moral to which 

 enterprises of this kind are necessarily exposed ; 

 when, in a word, talents, experience, or good for- 

 tune have extricated him out of dangers and dis- 

 tresses innumerable ; there is, it must be acknow- 

 ledged, a satisfaction, a real enjoyment in retracing 

 the variousevents which excited powerful emotions 

 during his progress, the obstructions, the fatigues, 

 the hazards which by turns attacked or threatened 

 the very existence of the traveller ; for if it be plea- 

 sant to call to remembrance calamities which are 

 past, it is still more so to relate them. 



If to these motives purely personal, but which, 

 nevertheless, rarely fail toawakenageneral interest, 

 the man who has devoted himself to the dangers of 

 tedious peregrinations, unites views more exalted, 

 considerations more powerful ; if, transported with 



the 



