My health, too, gives way,
and I cannot now put up so well with fatigue and privations as at first.
All these causes will induce me to come home as soon as possible, and I
think I may promise, if no accident happens, to come back to dear and
beautiful England in the summer of next year. C. Allen will stay a year
longer and complete the work which I shall not be able to do.
I have been pretty comfortable here, having for two months had the
society of Mr. Geach, a Cornish mining engineer who has been looking for
copper here. He is a very intelligent and pleasant fellow, but has now
left. Another Englishman, Capt. Hart, is a resident here. He has a
little house on the foot of the hills two miles out of town; I have a
cottage (which was Mr. Geach's) a quarter of a mile farther. He is what
you may call a _speculative_ man: he reads a good deal, knows a little
and wants to know more, and is fond of speculating on the most abstruse
and unattainable points of science and philosophy. You would be
astonished at the number of men among the captains and traders of these
parts who have more than an average amount of literary and scientific
taste; whereas among the naval and military officers and various
Government officials very few have any such taste, but find their only
amusements in card-playing and dissipation.
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