THE AFRICAN ASSOCIATION. 295 
" hesitate, like men, to perform a generous action. 
" Not haughty, not arrogant, not supercilious ; 
" they are full of courtesy, and fond of society ; 
" more liable, in general, to err than man, but, in 
" general, also more virtuous, and performing more 
" good actions than he. To a woman, whether 
" civilized or savage, I never addressed myself in 
" the language of decency and friendship, without 
" receiving a decent and friendly answer. With 
" man it has often been otherwise. In wandering 
" over the barren plains of inhospitable Denmark, 
" through honest Sweden, and frozen Lapland, 
" rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, 
" and the wide- spread regions of the wandering 
" Tartar ; if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, the 
" women have ever been friendly to me, and uni- 
" formly so : and to add to this virtue, (so worthy 
" the appellation of benevolence), these actions 
" have been performed in so free and so kind a 
" manner, that, if I was dry, I drank the sweetest 
" draught, and, if hungry, I ate the coarse morsel 
" with a double relish.' ' But though the native 
benevolence of the female savage might sometimes 
soften his distress, yet he seems often to have en- 
dured the extremities of wretchedness. " I am 
" accustomed to hardships," said he, on the morn- 
ing of his departure to Africa ; " I have known 
" both hunger and nakedness to the utmost extre- 
H mity of human suffering : I have known what it 
