After mastering the English language, he associated much among the country people with whom, in consequence of his affability and sprightliness, he became uncommonly popular. The urbanity of his manners induced many youths from the upper towns of Westchester to join his legion, and among the pilgrims of life yet left in that county, when this paper was written, one or two old associates still lingered who lamented the untimely death of the generous Frenchman and who never speak of him but in the voice of praise and affection. He always took a lively interest in the prosperity of the states in which he had freely expended his private income, and to whose service he had devoted some of the best years of his life. During the agitations which accompanied the creation and adoption of our Federal constitution, he continued to

34 THE McDONALD PAPERS

show, both in conversation and letters, extreme solicitude for the success of the great experiment. It may be worthy of remark that of all our different inhabitants, the people of Massachusetts seem to have impressed him the most favor-ably. He always spoke of their kindness, intelligence and liberality in terms of gratitude and admiration. "I went to Boston," he used to say, "an entire stranger and destitute of means, yet, while sojourning there, I was not only received and entertained with more genuine hospitality than I ever experienced elsewhere, but the merchants of the city, from time to time, then and afterward, advanced all such moneys as I required, solely upon my promise that I would, at some future day, repay them." La Rouërie possessed quick parts, a lively wit and great eloquence, both for conversation and formal discourse. A seven years' residence in the United States, which tempered and gave stable and distinctive qualities to his youthful char-acter, is acknowledged by his admirers as the first cause of his celebrity.