ll at this point to furnish an outline sketch of his various
residences in Europe. The voyage from America lasted about a month; and
after staying a few days in England he passed over to France, on the
soil of which he first set foot on the 18th of July, 1826. Either in
Paris or its immediate neighborhood he remained until February, 1828,
when he crossed over to England. Leaving London early in June, (p. 068)
he went back to France by the way of Holland and Belgium. In July, 1828,
he left Paris for Switzerland, and took up his residence near Berne.
After spending some weeks in making excursions from that point, he
crossed the Alps in October by the Simplon Pass. The following winter
and spring he spent in Florence and its vicinity. In the summer of 1829
he sailed down the Italian coast to Naples, and after staying a few
weeks in that city, made a home for himself and his family at Sorrento
for nearly three months. The winter of 1829-30 he spent in Rome. In the
spring of 1830 he went to Venice. From that place he journeyed to Munich
by the Tyrol, and finally settled down in Dresden. From his temporary
home in Saxony, however, the July revolution speedily drew him to Paris,
and that city he made mainly his residence from that time until his
return to America in 1833. There he was, and there he stood his ground
during the terrible cholera ravages of 1832. Occasional expeditions he
made, and of one in particular, up the Rhine and in Switzerland, he has
published a full account.

It was eminently characteristic of Cooper, that though he brought with
him letters of introduction, he found himself unwilling to deliver a
single one of them. Yet, certainly, if any American could be pardoned
the use of a custom that has been so much abused, he was the man. But
after he had resided quietly in France for a few weeks, he happened to
attend a diplomatic dinner given by the United States minister to
Canning, then on a visit to Paris. This was the occasion of making his
presence known to those who had long before made the acquaintance of his
writings. He was at once sought out and welcomed by the most (p. 069)
distinguished men of the most brilliant capital in the world. The
polish, the grace, the elegance, and the wit of French social life made
upon him an impression which he not only never forgot, but which he was
afterwards in the habit of contrasting with the social life of England
and America, to the manifest disadvantage