us, had we not been invited by an elderly woman to take shelter in her house till a carriage was provided for us. Our only recommendations to her were our being strangers, and the inclemency of the afternoon. She insisted on our taking coffee with her; and though she could neither talk English nor French, we contrived to hold a sufficiently intelligible dialogue by signs. We informed her that we came from Haerlem in the treckschuyt, and she was extremely angry with our fellow passengers, that seeing we were strangers, they had not conducted us to some place of shelter. In truth, the rain made them run as soon as they landed from the boat, and we were left with the little dirty boy who carried our portmanteau, to find our way as we could. The Dutch, however, in general, are to be praised for the attention which they pay to strangers who travel with them, frequently offering to conduct them whither they are going, and guarding them against the impositions which the skippers and, boatmen would put upon them.
