ally
exaggerate, although inclined to the mystical and romantic. I
have lived too little on land, however, for any ideas of that
nature to have taken much hold upon my mind. At sea, the movement
of the winds and waves, the unintermitting intercourse with one's
fellow-men--the whole life of a mariner, in short, leaves little
leisure for such fancies. But here, in this tropical clime, where
the heavens are of so deep a blue, and the leaves of so bright a
green, where the imagination is worked upon by Oriental scenery
and magnificence, and the very air one breathes is laden with
perfumes from the flower-fields and spice-groves of Araby the
Blest, here is the land of fiction and reverie, and here I at
times think that my new and most agreeable friend has laid me
under a spell equally pleasant and potent in its effects--a spell
from which I have neither wish nor ability to emancipate myself.
Yet why should I wish to escape an influence exercised only for
my good, and by which I must benefit? My greatest happiness is in
the friendship of this man, my greatest trust and reliance are in
his counsels. Stern is he, bold, almost rash in his actions, but
ever successful; and when he has an end to gain, nothing can
withstand him, no obstacle bar him from its attainment....

"... in the kindest manner lent me the sum I wanted to complete
the purchase-money of the diamonds, but obstinately refuses to
share the profits which, on my return to Europe, are sure to
accrue from this speculation. What generosity! M----is assuredly
the most disinterested and the truest of friends. We are becoming
each day more attached to each other. He has formed a project to
come and settle near Hamburg, and there we shall pass the rest of
our days together. He is a most singular and interesting person.
I shall weary you, perhaps, by all these details; but every thing
that relates to him interests me. Only think, the other day I
found in a cabinet in his apartment, a mask, which he told me he
had himself made. I never saw such a masterpiece. It was of wax,
imitating perfectly a human countenance, of an expression
eminently attractive, although sad. He was not in the room when I
found it, in seeking for a book he had promised to lend me. He
came in when I had just taken it out of t