SOUTH AMERICA. 
257 
it requires a personal interview before a correct idea 
can be formed of his true colours. He is very in¬ 
quisitive ; but it is quite wrong on that account to 
tax him with being of an impertinent turn. He 
merely interrogates you for information ; and when 
you have satisfied him on that score, only ask him in 
your turn for an account of what is going on in his 
own country, and he will tell you every thing about 
it with great good humour, and in excellent language. 
He has certainly hit upon the way (but I could not 
make out by what means) of speaking a much purer 
English language than that which is in general 
spoken on the parent soil. This astonished me 
much ; but it is really the case. Amongst his many 
good qualities, he has one unenviable, and, I may 
add, a bad propensity : he is immoderately fond of 
smoking. He may say, that he learned it from his 
nurse, with wdiom it was once much in vogue. In 
Dutch William’s time (he was a man of bad taste), 
the English gentleman could not do without his pipe. 
During the short space of time that corporal Trim 
was at the inn inquiring after poor Lefevre’s health, 
my uncle Toby had knocked the ashes out of three 
pipes. “ It was not till my uncle Toby had knocked 
the ashes out of his third pipe,” &c. Now these 
times have luckily gone by, and the custom of 
smoking amongst genteel Englishmen has nearly 
died away with them ; it is a foul custom ; it makes 
a foul mouth, and a foul place where the smoker 
stands : however, every nation has its w r hims. John 
Bull relishes stinking venison ; a Frenchman depo- 
FOURTH 
JOURNEY. 
s 
