

Character *of the *Female Sex. *By Mr. *Ledyard, *a celebrated traveller.*

I have always remarked that women, in all countries, are civil, obliging, tender, and humane; that they are ever inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest : and that they do not hesitate, like men, to perform a generous action. Not haughty, not arrogant, not supercilious, they are full of courtesy, and fond of society ; more liable in general to err than man, but in general also more virtuous, and performing more good actions than he. To a woman, whether civilized or savage, I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. With men it has been otherwise.

In wandering over the *barren*  plains of *inhos- **pitable Denmark,*  through *honest Sweden*  and *fro- **zen Lapland, rude, and churlish Finland, unprin- **cipled Russia,*  and the *widespread regions*  of the *wandering Tartar ;*  if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, the women have ever been friendly to me, and uniformly so ; and to add to this virtue (so worthy the appellation of benevolence) these actions have been performed in so free and so kind a manner, that if I was dry I drank the sweetest draught, and if hungry I eat the coarse morsel with a double relish.

