Page:An account of a savage girl.djvu/73

Rh only a few French words, which she pronounces badly; it is almost impossible to conjecture, of what country she is a native: It is, however, certain, from the circumstances I am now to lay before you, that she is not a Norwegian, as has been reported. We are rather inclined to believe, that she is a native of some of the West India islands belonging to France, such as Guadaloupe, Martinico, St. Christophers, St. Domingo, &c. because a gentleman of Chalons, who has been at Guadaloupe, having shown her some cassave or manioc, a kind of bread used by the West India savages, she exclaimed for joy, and having seized a bit of it, eat it very greedily: He likeways shewed her some other curiosties of the same country, in which she took extraordinary delight, plainly discovering that she had seen things of the same kind before; whence we are led to suspect at present, that she has rather come from that country than from Norway.

the few words we have been able to draw from her, it appears, that she has cross'd the sea; that afterwards a Lady of distinction took care of her education, and had caused her to be cloathed; before which her only covering was a skin; that this Lady kept her shut up in her house, without suffering her to be seen of any body; but the Lady's husband not chusing to