children the streaming blood to drink: the Jesuit remonstrated on the
cruelty of the action, on which, looking sternly at him, "I would have
them warriors," said she, "and therefore feed them with the food of
men."

This anecdote may perhaps disgust you with the Indian ladies, who
certainly do not excel in female softness. I will therefore turn to the
Canadian, who have every charm except that without which all other
charms are to me insipid, I mean sensibility: they are gay, coquet, and
sprightly; more gallant than sensible; more flatter'd by the vanity of
inspiring passion, than capable of feeling it themselves; and, like
their European countrywomen, prefer the outward attentions of unmeaning
admiration to the real devotion of the heart. There is not perhaps on
earth a race of females, who talk so much, or feel so little, of love
as the French; the very reverse is in general true of the English: my
fair countrywomen seem ashamed of the charming sentiment to which they
are indebted for all their power.

Adieu! I am going to attend a very handsome French lady, who allows
me the honor to drive her _en calache_ to our Canadian Hyde Park,
the road to St. Foix, where you will see forty or fifty calashes, with
pretty women in them, parading every evening: you will allow the
apology to be admissible.

Ed. Rivers.



LETTER 5.