These reflections took their origin, without doubt, from my having
spent almost all my life amidst those grand creations of Nature,
from which man continually derives sentiments that elevate him to
the Supreme Being. I had studied that Nature--in all her details,
her beneficence, and her magnificence--too attentively to allow
the productions of man's genius to make upon me the impression
which I thought might be expected, when I first formed the wish
to see the monuments of Egypt; and, while sailing for Europe, I
already anticipated the feeling that a short sojourn in the midst of
civilisation would cause me to regret my ancient freedom, my mountains,
and my solitudes in the Philippine Islands.

On arriving at Malta I was for eighteen days locked up in Fort Manuel,
and then passed the quarantine. I there received news of my family. My
mother and sisters wrote to me that they were in the enjoyment of
excellent health, and were awaiting with impatience my coming to
them. After the quarantine was over, I stopped nearly a week in
the city, while waiting for a steamer that was going to France. I
embraced the opportunity of seeing every curiosity in the island. I
then resumed my voyage to my native land, and the following week I
recognised the arid rocks of Provence and France, from which I had
been absent for twenty years.

In a few days I reached Nantes, where for some time I enjoyed, in every
respect, all the happiness which one feels when those beloved beings
from whom one had been long severed, and who formed the last living
ties of affection for an unhappy being who had been severely tried
by a capricious destiny. But the want of excitement in which I lived
soon became irksome; my life had been too active, so that the sudden
transition could not fail to prove injurious to my health, and the idea
of submitting during the remainder of my existence to a life sterile
and monotonous became intolerable. Not knowing how to employ myself,
I resolved to travel through Europe, and to study the civilised world,
which was then so strange to me. I travelled through France, England,
Belgium, Spain, and Italy, and returned to my family, without being
able to discover anything that could induce me to forget my Indians,
Jala-Jala, and my solitary excursions in the virgin forests. The
society of men reared in extreme civilisation could not efface from my
memory my past modest life. Notwithstanding all my efforts, I retained
in my hea