SOUTH AMERICA. 



255. 



So thus he's doomed to drink the measure 

 Of pain, in lieu of that of pleasure. 



Fourth 

 Journey, 



On Hope's delusive pinions borne 

 He came for wool, and goes back shorn. 

 iV. 23. — Here he alludes to nothing but 

 Th' adventure of his toe and foot; 

 Save this, — he sees all that which can 

 Delight and charm the soul of man. 

 But feels it not, — because his toe 

 And foot together plague him so." 



I remember once to have sprained my ancle very 

 violently many years ago, and that the doctor ordered me 

 to hold it under the pump two or three times a day. 

 Now, in the United States of America, all is upon a 

 grand scale, except taxation ; and I am convinced that 

 the traveller's ideas become much more enlarged as he 

 journies through the country. This being the case, I can 

 easily accoimt for the desire I felt to hold my sprained 

 foot under the fall of Niagara. I descended the winding 

 staircase which has been made for the accommodation of 

 travellers, and then hobbled on to the scene of action. 

 As I held my leg under the fall, I tried to meditate on 

 the immense difference there Avas betwixt a house pump 

 and this tremendous cascade of nature, and what effect it 

 might have upon the sprain ; but the magnitude of the 

 subject was too overwhelmuig, and I was obliged to 

 drop it. 



Perhaps, indeed, there was an unwarrantable tincture of 

 vanity in an unknown wanderer wishing to have it in his 



