Years Journey through France and Part of Spain | Page 6

village pleasantly
situated, and inhabited by none other but the poorest peasants; whose
tattered habits, wretched houses, and smiling countenances, convinced
me, that chearfulness and contentment shake hands oftener under
thatched than painted roofs. We found one of these villagers as ready to
boil our tea-kettle, provide butter, milk, &c. as we were for our
breakfasts; and during the preparation of it, I believe every man,
woman, and child of the hamlet, was come down to _look at us_; for
beside that wonderful curiosity common to this whole nation, the
inhabitants of this village had never before seen an Englishman; they
had heard indeed often of the country, they said, and that it was _un
pays très riche_. There was such a general delight in the faces of every
age, and so much civility, I was going to say politeness, shewn to us,
that I caught a temporary chearfulness in this village, which I had not
felt for some months before, and which I intend to carry with me. I
therefore took out my guittar, and played till I set the whole assembly
in motion; and some, in spite of their wooden shoes, and others without
any, danced in a manner not to be seen among our English peasants.
They had "shoes like a sauce-boat," but no "steeple-clock'd hose."
While we breakfasted, one of the villagers fed my horse with some
fresh-mowed hay, and it was with some difficulty I could prevail upon
him to be paid for it, because the trifle I offered was much more than
his Court of Conscience informed him it was worth. I could moralize
here a little; but I will only ask you, in which state think you man is
best; the untaught man, in that of nature, or the man whose mind is
enlarged by education and a knowledge of the world? The behaviour of
the inhabitants of this little hamlet had a very forcible effect upon me;
because it brought me back to my earlier days, and reminded me of the
reception I met with in America by what we now call the Savage
Indians; yet I have been received in the same courteous manner in a
little hamlet, unarmed, and without any other protection but by the law
of nature, by those _savages_;--indeed it was before the Savages of
Europe had instructed them in the art of war, or Mr. Whitfield had
preached methodism among them. Therefore, I only tell you what they
were in 1735, not what they are at present. When I visited them, they
walked in the flowery paths of Nature; now, I fear, they tread the

polluted roads of blood. Perhaps of all the uncivilized nations under the
sun, the native Indians of America were the most humane; I have seen
an hundred instances of their humanity and integrity;--when a white
man was under the lash of the executioner, at Savannah in Georgia, for
using an Indian woman ill, I saw Torno Chaci, their King, run in
between the offender and the corrector, saying, "_whip me, not
him_;"--the King was the complainant, indeed, but the man deserved a
much severer chastisement. This was a Savage King. Christian Kings
too often care not who is whipt, so they escape the smart.

LETTER V.
RHEIMS.
We arrived at this city before the bustle which the coronation of Louis
the 16th occasioned was quite over; I am sorry I did not see it, because
I now find it worth seeing; but I staid at Calais on purpose to avoid it;
for having paid two guineas to see the coronation of George the Third, I
determined never more to be put to any extraordinary expence on the
score of crowned heads. However, my curiosity has been well gratified
in hearing it talked over, and over again, and in reading _Marmontell_'s
letter to a friend upon that subject; but I will not repeat what he, or
others have said upon the occasion, because you have, no doubt, seen in
the English papers a tolerably good one; only that the Queen was so
overcome with the repeated shouts and plaudits of her new subjects,
that she was obliged to retire. The fine Gothic cathedral, in which the
ceremony was performed, is indeed a church worthy of such a
solemnity; the portal is the finest I ever beheld; the windows are
painted in the very best manner; nor is there any thing within the
church but what should be there. I need not tell you that this is the
province which produces the most delicious wine in the world; but I
will assure you, that I should have drank it with more pleasure, had you
been here to have partook of it. In the cellars of one wine-merchant, I
was conducted through long passages