re was the usual bustle, as to who should be the bearers of our
luggage; a thousand ragged figures, more resembling scarecrows than
human beings, seized them from the hands of each other, and we might
have bid our property a last farewell perhaps, had it not been for the
ill-humour of our Captain. He laid about him with more vigour than
mercy, and in a manner which surprised me, either that he should
venture, or that even the miserable objects before us should bear. Had
he exerted his hands and his oar in a similar manner either in England
or in America, he would have been compelled to vindicate his assumed
superiority by his superior manhood. Here every one fled before him, and
yielded him as much submission and obedience, as if he had been the
prefect himself.

The French seem to have no idea of the art of pugilism, and with the
sole exception of the military, no point of honour which renders them
impatient under any merited personal castigation. They take a blow with
great _sang froid_. Whether from good humour, or cowardice; whether that
they thought they deserved it, or that they feared to resent it, the
single arm of our Captain chastised a whole rabble of them, and they
made a lane for as many of us as chose to land, accompanied by such
porters as we had ourselves selected. Three or four of them, however,
were still importuning us to permit them to show us to an inn; but as we
had already made our selection in this point likewise, our Captain
returned them no answer, but by a rough mimickry of their address and
gesticulation.

After our luggage had undergone the customary examination by the
officers of the customs, in the execution of which office a liberal fee
procured us much civility, we were informed that it was necessary to
present ourselves before the Commissary, for that so many Englishmen had
obtained admission as Americans, that the French government had found it
necessary to have recourse to an unusual strictness, and that the
Commissary had it in orders not to suffer any one to proceed till after
the most rigid inquiry into his passport and business.

Accordingly, having seen our luggage into a wheel-barrow, which the
Captain insisted should accompany us, we waited upon the Commissary, but
were not fortunate enough to find him at his office. A little dirty boy
informed us, that Mons. Mangouit had gone out to visit a neighbour, but
that if we would wait till twelve o'clock (it was now about nine), we