We chose to walk the first league, which brought us to the refuge.  The previous day, the guide had given us a great deal of gossip; and, among other things, be mentioned having been up to the convent lately, with a family of Americans, whom he described as a people of peculiar appearance, and peculiar odour.  By questioning him a little, we discovered that he had been up with a party of coloured people from St. Domingo.  His head was a perfect Babel as it respected America, which was not a hemisphere, but one country, one government, and one people.  To this we were accustomed, however; and, finding that we passed for English, we trotted the honest fellow a good deal on the subject of his nasal sufferings from travelling in such company.  On the descent we knew that we should encounter the party left at Bex, and our companion was properly prepared for the interview.  Soon after quitting the refuge, the meeting took place, to the astonishment of the guide, who gravely affirmed, after we had parted, that there must be two sorts of Americans, as these we had just left did not at all resemble those he had conducted to the convent.  May this little incident prove an entering wedge to some new ideas in the Valais, on the subject of the “twelve millions!”

The population of this canton, more particularly the women, were much more good-looking on the mountain than in the valley.  We saw no cretins after leaving Martigny; and soft lineaments, and clear complexions, were quite common in the other sex.

You will probably wish to know something of the celebrated passage of Napoleon, and of its difficulties.  As far as the ascent was concerned, the latter has been greatly exaggerated.  Armies have frequently passed the Great St. Bernard.  Aulus Coecinna led his barbarians across in 69; the Lombards crossed in 547; several armies in the time of Charlemagne, or about the year 1000; and in the wars of Charles le Temeraire, as well as at other periods, armies made use of this pass.  Near the year 900, a strong body of Turkish corsairs crossed from Italy, and seized the pass of St. Maurice.  Thus history is full of events to suggest the idea of crossing.

Nor is this all.  From the time the French entered Switzerland in 1796, troops occupied, manoeuvred, and even fought on this mountain.  The Austrians having succeeded in turning the summit, contended an entire day with their enemies, who remained masters of the field, or rather rock.  Ebel estimates the number of the hostile troops who were on this pass, between the years 1798 and 1801, 150,000, including the army of Napoleon, which was 30,000 strong.