Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797 [Vol. 1 of 2]Weld, Isaac
History
Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797 [Vol. 1 of 2]
Weld, Isaac
Canada -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; United States -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
The height of his person is about five feet eleven; his chest is full;
and his limbs, though rather slender, well shaped and muscular. His
head is small, in which respect he resembles the make of a great
number of his countrymen. His eyes are of a light grey colour; and, in
proportion to the length of his face, his nose is long. Mr. Stewart,
the eminent portrait painter, told me, that there are features in his
face totally different from what he ever observed in that of any other
human being; the sockets for the eyes, for instance, are larger than
what he ever met with before, and the upper part of the nose broader.
All his features, he observed, were indicative of the strongest and
most ungovernable passions, and had he been born in the forests, it
was his opinion that he would have been the fiercest man amongst the
savage tribes. In this Mr. Stewart has given a proof of his great
discernment and intimate knowledge of the human countenance; for
although General Washington has been extolled for his great moderation
and calmness, during the very trying situations in which he has so
often been placed, yet those who have been acquainted with him the
longest and most intimately say, that he is by nature a man of a
fierce and irritable disposition, but that, like Socrates, his
judgment and great self-command have always made him appear a man of a
different cast in the eyes of the world. He speaks with great
diffidence, and sometimes hesitates for a word; but it is always to
find one particularly well adapted to his meaning. His language is
manly and expressive. At levee, his discourse with strangers turns
principally upon the subject of America; and if they have been through
any remarkable places, his conversation is free and particularly
interesting, as he is intimately acquainted with every part of the
country. He is much more open and free in his behaviour at levee than
in private, and in the company of ladies still more so than when
solely with men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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