My friend Vidie tried every means in his power to rouse me. He spoke to me often of France, of my mother, and of the consolation I should feel on presenting my son to her. The love of my country, and the thought of finding there those affections of which I stood so much in need, was a soft balm, which lulled for a while the sufferings that were constantly vibrating in the bottom of my heart. My Indians were deeply afflicted on learning the resolution I had taken of quitting them. They showed their trouble by saying to me, every time they addressed me! "Oh, master: what will become of us when we shall not see you again?" I quieted them as well as I could, by assuring them that Vidie would exert himself for their welfare; that when my son should be grown up, I would come back with him and then never leave them. They answered me with their prayers: "May God grant it, master! But what a long time we shall have to pass without seeing you! However, we shall not forget you." CHAPTER XII. My friend Adolphe Barrot visits me at Jala-Jala--The Bamboo Cane--The Cocoa-Nut Tree--The Banana--Majestic Forests of Gigantic Trees--The Leeches--A Tropical Storm in a Forest--An Indian Bridge--"Bernard the Hermit"--We arrive at Binangon-de-Lampon--The Ajetas--Veneration of the Ajetas for their Dead--Poison used by the Ajetas--I carry away a Skeleton--We Embark on the Pacific in an old Canoe, reach Maoban, and ultimately arrive at Jala-Jala. At this epoch of my recollections, in the midst of my melancholy and of my troubles, I formed an intimate and enduring friendship with a compatriot, a good and excellent man, for whom I always preserve the attachment first formed in a foreign country, several thousand leagues from home. I now speak of Adolphe Barrot, who was sent as consul-general to Manilla. He came with several friends to spend some days at Jala-Jala. Being unwilling that he should suffer any unpleasantness from the state of my feelings, I endeavoured to render his stay at Jala-Jala as agreeable as in my power. I arranged several hunting and shooting parties, and excursions through the mountains and on the lake. For his sake I resumed my old mode of life, such as I had been used to before I was overwhelmed by misfortune.