My work is merely a journal of my travels. Why should I take any steps
to prepossess the judgment of my reader? Shall I not have more claim to
his indulgence when I have assured him, that it was not originally my
intention to write a book? Will not my account be the more interesting,
when it is known, that my sole inducement to employ my pen was the
necessity I found of filling up my leisure moments, and that my vanity
extended no farther than to give my friends a faithful journal of the
difficulties I had to encounter, and the observations I made on my
road? It is evident I wrote by intervals, negligently or with care,
as circumstances permitted, or as the impressions made by the objects
around me were more or less forcible.
Conscious of my own inexperience, I thought it a duty I owed myself
to let slip no opportunity of acquiring information, as if I had
foreseen, that I should be called to account for the time I had spent,
and the knowledge which I had it in my power to obtain: but perhaps
the scrupulous exactness to which I confined myself, entailed on my
narration a want of elegance and variety.
The events which relate personally to myself are so connected with the
subject of my remarks, that I have taken no care to suppress them. I
may therefore, not undeservedly, be reproached with having spoken too
much of myself: but this is the prevailing sin of travellers of my age.
Besides this, I am ready to accuse myself of frequent repetitions,
which would have been avoided by a more experienced pen. On certain
subjects, particularly in respect of travels, it is scarcely possible
to avoid an uniformity of style. To paint the same objects, we must
employ the same colours; hence similar expressions are continually
recurring.
With respect to the pronunciation of the Russian, Kamtschadale, and
other foreign words, I shall observe, that all the letters are to be
articulated distinctly. I have thought it adviseable, even in the
vocabulary, to reject those consonants, the confused assemblage of
which discourages the reader, and is not always necessary, The _kh_
is to be pronounced as the _ch_ of the Germans, or the _j_ of the
Spaniards, and the _ch_ as in the French. The finals _oi_ and _in_, are
to be pronounced, the former as an improper diphthong (_oï_) and the
latter in the English, not in the French manner.
The delay of publishing this journal renders some excuse necessary.
Unquestionably I might have given it to the world sooner, and it was
my duty to have done it; but my gratitude bad me wait the return of
the count de la Perouse. What is my journey, said I to myself? To the
public, it is only an appendage to the important expedition of that
gentleman; to myself, it is an honourable proof of his confidence: I
had a double motive to submit my account to his inspection. My own
interest also prescribed this to me. How happy should I have been, if,
permitting me to publish my travels as a supplement to his, he had
deigned to render me an associate of his fame! This, I confess, was
the sole end of my ambition; the sole cause of my delay.
How cruel for me, after a year of impatient expectation, to see the
wished for period still more distant! Not a day has passed since
my arrival, on which my wishes have not recalled the Astrolabe and
Boussole. How often, traversing in imagination the seas they had to
cross, have I sought to trace their progress, to follow then from port
to port, to calculate their delays, and to measure all the windings of
their course!
When at the moment of our separation in Kamtschatka, the officers of
our vessels sorrowfully embraced me as lost, who would have said, that
I should first revisit my native country; that many of them would never
see it more; and that in a little time I should shed tears over their
fate!
Scarcely, in effect, had I time to congratulate myself on the success
of my mission, and the embraces of my family, when the report of our
misfortunes in the Archipelago of navigators arrived, to fill my heart
with sorrow and affection. The viscount de Langle, that brave and
loyal seaman, the friend, the companion of our commander; a man whom I
loved and respected as my father, is no more! My pen refuses to trace
his unfortunate end, but my gratitude indulges itself in repeating,
that the remembrance of his virtues and his kindness to me, will live
eternally in my bosom.
Reader, who ever thou art, pardon this involuntary effusion of my
grief. Hadst thou known him whom I lament, thou wouldst mingle thy
tears with mine: like me thou wouldst pray to Heaven, that, for
our consolation, and for the glory of France, the commander of the
expedition, and those of our brave Argonauts, whom it has preserved,
may soon return. Ah! if whilst I write, a favourable gale should fill
their sails, and impel them towards our shores!--May this prayer of my
heart be heard! May the day on which these volumes are published, be
that of their arrival! In the excess of my joy, my self-love would find
the highest gratification.