4 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



thirst after science, apassion for discovery, the cool- 

 ness of intrepidity ; with a physical constitution fit 

 to encounter every hardship; I seemed to be formed 

 for enterprises the most hazardous, for the execu- 

 tion of projects the most uncommon ; and when, 

 after a long course of trial in this way, though still 

 in the prime of life, I returned to my native country, 

 that same Nature who has allotted to each of us 

 his particular disposition, seemed to punish me for 

 choosing a state of retirement, and at the same time 

 to accuse a government which scarcely ever under- 

 stood how to place men in the post adapted to them, 

 or to do itself honour by making a selection unsul- 

 lied by venality or intrigue. That robust tempera- 

 ment which had withstood the burning heat of an 

 African climate, the boiling humidity of theequator, 

 in South America ; which no excess of fatigue and 

 privation was able to subdue, sunk under the lan- 

 guor of repose. One violent malady succeeded an- 

 other ; a gloomy melancholy occupied the place of 

 mental activity, and a painful agitation of soul fol- 

 lowed close upon the salutary agitation of the body. 

 An absence of some years had stimulated a covet- 

 ous disposition in certain of my relations. In order 

 to recover what they had robbed me of, I was 

 obliged to find my way into what was then deno- 

 minated the sanctuary of Justice, but which proved 

 to be, in reality, the labyrinth of chicane, the walls 

 of which, bristled on all sides with sharp hooks, 



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