I fell in speechless adoration on my knees and shed tears of
thankfulness, for suddenly my future stood clear before my soul. For
early offense thrust out from the society of men, I was cast, for
compensation, upon Nature, which I ever loved; the earth was given me
as a rich garden, study for the object and strength of my life, and
science for its goal. It was no resolution which I adopted. I only
have since, with severe, unremitted diligence, striven faithfully
to represent what then stood clear and perfect before my eye, and my
satisfaction has depended on the agreement of the representation with
the original.
I roused myself in order, without delay, and with a hasty survey, to
take possession of the field where I should hereafter reap. I stood on
the heights of Tibet, and the sun, which had risen upon me only a few
hours before, now already stooped to the evening sky. I wandered over
Asia from east to west, overtaking him in his course, and entered
Africa. I gazed about me with eager curiosity, as I repeatedly
traversed it in all directions. As I surveyed the ancient pyramids
and temples in passing through Egypt, I descried in the desert not far
from hundred-gated Thebes, the caves where the Christian anchorites
once dwelt. It was suddenly firm and clear in me--here is thy home!
I selected one of the most concealed which was at the same time
spacious, convenient, and inaccessible to the jackals, for my future
abode, and again went forward.
I passed, at the pillars of Hercules, over to Europe, and when I
reviewed the southern and northern provinces, I crossed from northern
Asia over the polar glaciers to Greenland and America, traversed both
parts of that continent, and the winter which already reigned in the
south drove me speedily back northward from Cape Horn.
I tarried awhile till it was day in eastern Asia, and, after some
repose, continued my wandering. I traced through both Americas the
mountain chain which constitutes the highest known acclivities on our
globe. I stalked slowly and cautiously from summit to summit, now
over flaming volcanoes, now snow-crowned peaks, often breathing
with difficulty, when, reaching Mount Saint Elias, I sprang across
Behring's Straits to Asia. I followed the western shores in their
manifold windings, and examined with especial care to ascertain which
of the islands were accessible to me. From the peninsula of Malacca my
boots carried me to Sumatra, Java, Bali and Lamboc. I attempted often
with danger, and always in vain, a northwest passage over the lesser
islet and rocks with which this sea is studded, to Borneo and the
other islands of this Archipelago. I was compelled to abandon the
hope. At length I seated myself on the extreme portion of Lamboc, and
gazing toward the south and east, wept, as at the fast closed bars
of my prison, that I had so soon discovered my limits. New Holland so
extraordinary and so essentially necessary to the comprehension of the
earth and its sun-woven garment, the vegetable and the animal world,
with the South Sea and its Zoophyte islands, was interdicted to me,
and thus, at the very outset, all that I should gather and build up
was destined to remain a mere fragment! Oh, my Adelbert, what, after
all, are the endeavors of men!
Often did I in the severest winter of the southern hemisphere,
endeavor, passing the polar glaciers westward, to leave behind me
those two hundred strides out from Cape Horn, which sundered me
probably from Van Diemen's Land and New Holland, regardless of my
return or whether this dismal region should close upon me as my
coffin-lid--making desperate leaps from ice-drift to ice-drift, and
bidding defiance to the cold and the sea. In vain! I never reached New
Holland, but, every time, I came back to Lamboc, seated myself on its
farthest peak, and wept again, with my face turned toward the south
and east, as at the fast closed bars of my prison.
I tore myself at length from this spot, and returned with a sorrowful
heart into inner Asia. I traversed that farther, pursuing the morning
dawn westward, and came, yet in the night, to my proposed home in the
Thebais, which I had touched upon in the afternoon of the day before.
As soon as I was somewhat rested, and when it was day again in Europe,
I made it my first care to procure everything which I wanted. First of
all, stop-shoes; for I had experienced how inconvenient it was when
I wished to examine near objects, not to be able to slacken my stride
except by pulling off my boots. A pair of slippers drawn over them had
completely the effect which I anticipated, and later I always carried
two pairs, since I sometimes threw them from my feet, without having
time to pick them up again, when lions, men, or hyenas startled
me from my botanizing. My very excellent watch was, for the short
duration of my passage, a capital chronometer. Besides this I needed a
sextant, some scientific instruments, and books.
To procure all this, I made several anxious journeys to London and
Paris, which, auspiciously for me, a mist just then overshadowed.
As the remains of my enchanted gold was now exhausted, I easily
accomplished the payment by gathering African ivory, in which,
however, I was obliged to select only the smallest tusks, as not too
heavy for me. I was soon furnished and equipped with all these, and
commenced immediately, as private philosopher, my new course of life.
I roamed about the earth, now determining the altitudes of mountains;
now the temperature of its springs and the air; now contemplating the
animal, now inquiring into the vegetable tribes. I hastened from the
equator to the pole, from one world to the other, comparing facts with
facts. The eggs of the African ostrich or the northern sea-fowl, and
fruits, especially of the tropical palms and bananas, were even
my ordinary food. In lieu of happiness I had tobacco, and of human
society and the ties of love, one faithful poodle, which guarded my
cave in the Thebais, and, when I returned home with fresh treasures,
sprang joyfully toward me and gave me still a human feeling that I was
not alone on the earth. An adventure was yet destined to conduct me
back amongst mankind.