OUR FIRST ALLIANCE 



533 



after this to examine the products of the 

 soil of Rhode Island, "perhaps one of the 

 • prettiest islands on the globe." 



The stay being prolonged, the officers 

 began to make acquaintances, to learn 

 English, to gain access to American so- 

 ciety. It was at first very difficult; 

 neither French nor American understood 

 each other's language ; so recourse was 

 bravely had to Latin, better known then 

 than today. 



UNSPEAKABLE QUANTITIES OE TEA ARE 

 DRUNK 



For the use of Latin the commander- 

 in-chief of the French army was able to 

 set the example, and Ezra Stiles could talk 

 at a dinner in that language with Rocham- 

 beau, still reminiscent of what he had 

 learned when studying for priesthood. 



Beginning to know something of the 

 language, our officers risk paying visits 

 and go to teas and dinners. Closen notes 

 with curiosity all he sees : "It is good be- 

 havior each time people meet to accost 

 each other, mutually offering the hand 

 and shaking it, English fashion. Arriv- 

 ing in a company of men, one thus goes 

 around, but must remember that it be- 

 longs to the one of higher rank to extend 

 his hand first."- 



Unspeakable quantities of tea are 

 drunk. "To crave mercy, when one has 

 taken half a dozen cups, one must put the 

 spoon across the cup ; for so long as you 

 do not place it so, your cup is always 

 taken, rinsed, filled again, and placed be- 

 fore you. After the first, the custom is 

 for the pretty pourer (verseuse) — most 

 of them are so — to ask you : Is the tea 

 suitable?" "An insipid drink," grumbles 

 Chaplain Robin, over whom the pretti- 

 ness of the pourers was powerless. 



The toasts are also a very surprising 

 custom, sometimes an uncomfortable one. 

 "One is terribly fatigued by the quantity 

 of healths which are being drunk 

 (toasts). From one end of the table to 

 the other a gentleman pledges you, some- 

 times with only a glance, which means 

 that you should drink a glass of wine 

 with him — a compliment which cannot be 

 politely ignored." 



But what strikes him more than any- 

 thing else is the beauty of those young 



ladies who made him drink so much tea : 

 "Nature has endowed the ladies of Rhode 

 Island with the handsomest, finest fea- 

 tures one can imagine ; their complexion 

 is clear and white ; their hands and feet 

 usually small." 



But let not the ladies of other States 

 be tempted to resent this preference. 

 One sees later that in each city he visits 

 young Closen is similarly struck, and that, 

 more considerate than the shepherd Paris, 

 he somehow manages to refuse the apple 

 to none. On the Boston ladies he is quite 

 enthusiastic, on the Philadelphia ones not 

 less ; he finds, however, the latter a little 

 too serious, which he attributes to the 

 presence of Congress in that city. 



the frenchmen's impression oe 

 washington 



But, above all, the object of my com- 

 patriots' curiosity was the great man, the 

 one of whom they had heard so much on 

 the other side, the personification of the 

 new-born ideas of liberty and popular 

 government — George Washington. All 

 wanted to see him, and as soon as per- 

 mission to travel was granted several 

 managed to reach his camp. For all of 

 them, different as they might be in rank 

 and character, the impression was the 

 same and fulfilled expectation, beginning 

 with Rochambeau, who saw him for the 

 first time at the Hartford conferences, in 

 September, 1780, when they tried to draw 

 a first plan for a combined action. 



A friendship then commenced between 

 the two that was long to survive those 

 eventful years. "From the moment we 

 began to correspond with one another." 

 Rochambeau wrote in his memoirs, "I 

 never ceased to enjoy the soundness of 

 his judgment and the amenity of his style 

 in a very long correspondence, which is 

 likely not to end before the death of one 

 of us." 



Chastellux, who saw him at his camp, 

 where the band of the American army 

 played for him the "March of the Hu- 

 ron," could draw from life his well- 

 known description of him. ending: 

 "Northern America, from Boston to 

 Charleston, is a great book, every ' page 

 of which tells his praise." Count de 

 Segur says that he apprehended his ex- 



