shore, and as we approached, behold it was a 
land magnificent and dazzling; it seemed that 
all the harmonious sounds of life came from it 
in a vague murmur, and that from this coast, 
wealthy in every sort of greenery, there ex-
haled to a distance of many leagues a delicious 
odour of flowers and fruits. 
Immediately everyone was joyful, and ill-
humour departed; all quarrels were forgotten, 
all wrongs pardoned. The duels which had 
been arranged were erased from memory, and 
ill-will fled away like clouds of smoke. 
I alone was sad, inconceivably sad. Like a 
priest from whom one should ravish his Divin-
ity, I could not without heart-breaking bitter-
ness tear myself from this sea, so monstrously 
seductive, from this sea so infinitely varied in 
its terrifying simplicity; this sea which seems 
to contain in itself and to represent by its play, 
its enticements, its rages and its smiles, the 
dispositions, the agonies and the ecstasies of 
every soul that hath ever lived, that lives, that 
ever shall live. 
As I bade farewell to this incomparable 
beauty I felt myself smitten down even to 
death, and therefore whenever one of my 
companions cried “At last!” I was only able to 
cry “Already!”