HOMILY. 
239 
Chap. XIV.-B. P.] 
It was very reassuring to my guests to hear this 
account from our worthy medico. We are not likely, 
it appears, to fall victims to the pestilential climate of 
Greytown, nor to return home emaciated scarecrows, 
like Lord Nelson; the devil, after all, is not so black 
as painted. I strongly suspect that many a decent 
place has obtained a bad name from travellers whose 
reception or excesses, or natural infirmity of temper, 
have coloured their impressions—formed, after all, from 
a brief survey through a dirty pane of glass. “ For my 
part,” said I, u I intend to consider Greytown inno¬ 
cent of the high crimes and misdemeanours laid to 
its charge, until I have proof positive to the contrary. 
I shall wait with some degree of curiosity, when our 
relief comes, to see with what feelings we leave the 
Mosquito coast. Depend on it, there is no place on the 
face of the earth so bad but that you may get some 
good out of it, and do something in the interest of 
improvement and progress. Take the Arctic regions, 
for example; I am sure no one will deny, dreary 
and inhospitable as they undoubtedly are, that most of 
those men who have served there returned to Ens:- 
land, better in every sense for the trials and hardships 
to body and mind which they had to endure while 
searching for Franklin. Of the six years off and on, 
which I passed in that most interesting work, I would 
not forego a single day * and I feel strongly how much 
I am indebted to that trying service for making a c man 
of me,’ as the phrase goes. So now let us try, one and 
all, what good we can do with Mosquito and the 
Mosquitoes.” 
