ry," but had never seen the article in the
_Knickerbocker_, &c. But he did not _publish_ the correction, as he
should have done. For which reason I now vindicate myself from the
insinuated accusation that I borrowed from Bancroft. I had, indeed,
almost forgotten this work, "Fusang," when, in 1890, Prince Roland
Bonaparte, at a dinner given by him to the Congres des Traditions
Populaires, startled me by recurring to it and speaking of it with great
praise. For it vindicates the claim of the French that Desguignes first
discovered the fact that the Chinese were the first to discover America.
If any one doubts this, let him read the truly great work of Vinton on
the whole. Prince Roland had been in China and earnestly studied the
subject. Von Eichthal had endorsed my views, and wrote to me on Fusang.
I have been for many years well acquainted with his nephew, Baron von
Eichthal, and his remarkably accomplished wife, who is expert in all the
minor arts.

My father's resources became about this time limited, and I, in fact,
realised that he had taxed himself more than I had supposed to maintain
me abroad. His Congress Hall property did not pay much rent. For my
position in the world, friends, studies, and society, I found myself very
much and very often in great need of money. As at that time we were
supposed to be much richer than we really were, this was an additional
source of trial. I began to see clearly that in the law, as in all
business or professions, I should have to wait for years ere I could make
a living. For the instances are very few and far between in which a
young man, who has not inherited or grown up to a practice, can make one
himself at once.

More than this, I was not fitted for law at all. From my birth I had
absolutely one of those peculiar temperaments which really disqualify men
for "business." If I had entered a law-office in which there was much
office-work or practice, I might have acquired a practical interest in
the profession, but of this there was in ours literally none whatever. I
had a great fondness for copying deeds, &c., but Mr. Cadwallader, though
he very much admired my quaint round hand, being the very soul of honour,
observing that I was eager for such work, would not give me much of it
though it would have been to his profit, because, as he said, "students
who paid should not be employed as clerks only, much less as copying
machines." As it had always been deeply imp