cement for mercenary service; but my sufferings and forebodings on
account of Lucy and yourself were far greater than any which I endured
from my bodily torments, although the latter were great. I had all sorts
of imaginary fears; but nothing, alas! which could compare with the
reality that awaited me when, after my dreadful illness, I made my way,
destitute, ragged, and emaciated, back to Rio. I sought my former home.
It was deserted, and I was warned to flee from its vicinity, as the
fearful disease of fever had nearly depopulated that and the
neighbouring streets. I made every inquiry, but could obtain no
intelligence of my wife and child. I hastened to the charnel-house
where, during the raging of the pestilence, the unrecognized dead were
exposed; but among the disfigured remains it was impossible to
distinguish friends from strangers. I lingered about the city for weeks
in hopes to gain some information concerning Lucy; but could find no one
who had ever heard of her. All day I wandered about the streets and on
the wharves--the latter being places which Ben Grant (in whose faithful
charge I had left your mother and yourself) was in the habit of
frequenting--but not a syllable could I learn of any persons that
answered my description.

"My first thought had been that they would naturally seek my employer,
to learn, if possible, the cause of my prolonged absence; and on finding
my home empty I had hastened in search of him. But he too had, within a
recent period, fallen a victim to the prevailing distemper. His place of
business was closed and the establishment broken up. I continued my
inquiries until hope died within me. I was told that scarce an inmate of
the fatal neighbourhood where I had left my family had escaped; and
convinced, finally, that my fate was still pursuing me with an
unmitigated wrath, of which this last blow was but a single expression,
that I might have foreseen and expected, I madly agreed to work my
passage in the first vessel which promised me an escape from scenes so
fraught with harrowing recollections.

"And now commenced a course of wretched wandering. With varied ends in
view, following strongly contrasted employments, and with fluctuating
fortune, I have travelled over the world. My feet have trodden almost
every land. I have sailed on every sea and breathed the air of every
clime. I am familiar with the city and the wilderness, the civilized man
and the savage. I have learned the sad