The ship settles down from its long voyage. We are at home. We are at peace. CHAPTER XL. THE GARDEN IN THE MOUNTAINS [_These concluding lines are from the journal of Gabriel Weltstein_.] Since my return home I have not been idle. In the first place, I collected and put together the letters I had written to my brother Heinrich, from New York. I did this because I thought they were important, as a picture of the destruction of civilization, and of the events which led up to it. I furthermore had them printed on our printing-press, believing that every succeeding century would make them more valuable to posterity; and that in time they would be treasured as we now treasure the glimpses of the world before the Deluge, contained in the Book of Genesis. And I have concluded to still further preserve, in the pages of this journal, a record of events as they transpire. As soon as I had explained to my family the causes of our return--for which they were in part prepared by my letters to Heinrich--and had made them acquainted with my wife and friends, I summoned a meeting of the inhabitants of our colony--there are about five thousand of them, men, women and children. They all came, bringing baskets of provisions with them, as to a picnic. We met in an ancient grove upon a hillside. I spoke to them and told them the dreadful tale of the destruction of the world. I need not say that they were inexpressibly shocked by the awful narrative. Many of them wept bitterly, and some even cried out aloud--for they had left behind them, in Switzerland, many dear friends and relatives. I comforted them as best I could, by reminding them that the Helvetian Republic had survived a great many dynasties and revolutions; that they were not given to the luxuries and excesses that had wrecked the world, but were a primitive people, among whom labor had always remained honorable. Moreover, they were a warlike race, and their mountains were their fortifications; and they would, therefore, probably, be able to defend themselves against the invasion of the hungry and starving hordes who would range and ravage the earth.