SOUTH AMERICA. 271 

 a memorandum that the woods were bad ; on the eon- Fourth 



Journey, 



trary, I made allowances : a thunderstorm, the whirl- — 



wind, a blight from heaven might have robbed it of its 

 bloom, and caused its present forbidding appearance. 

 And, in leaving the forest, I carried away the impression, 

 that though some few of the trees were defective, the 

 rest were an ornament to the wilds, full of uses and 

 virtues, and capable of benefiting the world in a superior 

 degree. 



A man generally travels into foreign countries for his 

 own ends ; and I suspect there is scarcely an instance to 

 be found of a person leaving his own home solely with 

 the intention of benefiting those amongst whom he is 

 about to travel. A commercial speculation, curiosity, a 

 wish for information, a desire to reap benefit from an 

 acquaintance with our distant fellow- creatures, are the 

 general inducements for a man to leave his own fire-side. 

 This ought never to be forgotten ; and then the traveller 

 will journey on imder the persuasion that it rather 

 becomes him to court than expect to be courted, as his 

 own interest is the chief object of his travels. With this 

 in view, he will always render himself pleasant to the 

 natives ; and they are sure to repay his little acts of 

 courtesy with ample interest, and Avith a fund of informa- 

 tion which will be of great service to him. 



While in the United States, I found our western 

 brother a very pleasant fellow ; but his portrait has been 



