Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808Pinkney, lieutenant-colonel (Ninian)
History
Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808
Pinkney, lieutenant-colonel (Ninian)
France -- Description and travel
Such is the outline of Captain Eliab's adventures, with the detail of
which he amused me during our voyage. His character, however, deserves
some mention. If there is an honest man under the canopy of Heaven, it
was Captain Eliab; but his honesty was so plain and downright, so simple
and unqualified, that I know not how to describe it than by the plain
terms, that he was a strictly just and upright man. He had a sense of
honour--a natural feeling of what was right--which seemed extraordinary,
when compared with the irregular course of his life. Had he passed
through every stage of education, had he been formed from his childhood
to manhood under the anxious supervision of the most exemplary parents,
he could not have been more strict. I most sincerely hope, that it will
be hereafter my fortune to meet with this estimable man, and to
enumerate him amongst my friends. I must conclude this brief character
of him by one additional trait. A more pious Christian, but without
presbyterianism, did not exist than Captain Eliab. He attributed all his
good fortune to the blessing of Providence; and if any man was an
example that virtue, even in this life, has its reward, it was Captain
Eliab. In dangers common to many, he had repeatedly almost alone
escaped.
I had no other companion but the worthy Captain: I was his only
passenger, and we passed much of our time in the reading of his voyages,
of which he had kept an ample journal. His education having been rude
and imperfect, the style of his writing was more forcible than pure or
correct. I thought his account so interesting, and in many points so
important, that I endeavoured to persuade him to give it to the public;
and to induce him to it, offered to assist him, during our voyage, in
putting it into form. The worthy man accepted my offer, but I found that
I had undertaken a work to which I was unequal. I laboured, however,
incessantly, and before our arrival had completed so much of it, as to
induce the Captain to put it into the hands of a bookseller, by whom, as
I have since understood, it was transferred into the hands of a literary
gentleman to complete. In some misfortune the manuscript has been lost;
and the Captain being in America, there is probably an end of it for
ever. All I can now say is, that the public have sustained an important
loss.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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