To have challenged him instantly might have fixed a
quarrelsome character upon the young soldier: to have taken no
notice of it might have been counted as cowardice. Oglethorpe,
therefore, keeping his eye on the Prince, and smiling all the
time, as if he took what His Highness had done in jest, said,
"Mon Prince" (I forget the French words he used), "that's a good
joke; but we do it much better in England," and threw a whole
glass of wine in the Prince's face. An old general who sat by
said, "Il a bien fait, mon Prince, vous l'avez commence," and
thus all ended in good humour."
In Letter XIII. Smollett settles down to give his correspondents
a detailed description of the territory and people of Nice. At
one time it was his intention to essay yet another branch of
authorship and to produce a monograph on the natural history,
antiquities, and topography of the town as the capital of this
still unfamiliar littoral; with the late-born modesty of
experience, however, he recoils from a task to which he does not
feel his opportunities altogether adequate. [See p. 152.] A
quarter of Smollett's original material would embarrass a
"Guide"-builder of more recent pattern.
Whenever he got near a coast line Smollett could not refrain from
expressing decided views.
