It is difficult for me to tell you what it is to be alone in the bosom of the N’Ka̤mi forest. No fancy can portray the solitude of such a time and place. Just now the elements are in an angry mood; the thunder rolls along the sky, until the earth recoils and trembles at the sound; the wind shrieks through the jungle as if to find a refuge from impending wrath; the pouring rain pursues it with the speed of fear; the lightning waves its torch, and glowing chains of fire fall. Such is the way in which the long and dreary nights approach my hermitage. And yet, I am content among the dismal shadows of the wilderness, for Nature makes me her confidant, and every hour divulges some new secret; and my cage affords me such immunity from danger that I can sit quiescently and witness all her sports, as no one ever witnessed them before.
