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I was so persuaded that his forebodings would not be delayed in being realized, that I scarcely dared to utter the smallest consolation or any hopes. Who could then have told me that he and I alone were to survive all those who surrounded us, full of life and health? But, alas! let us not here anticipate future events. Poor Bermigan breathed his last.
I shall never forget the fatal night: we were all assembled in the drawing-room, grief and consternation were in every heart and pourtrayed in every countenance; in an adjoining room a few short steps from us, we heard the death-rattle of poor Bermigan, who had only a few minutes to live.
Malo, who had come from Bourbon to establish at Manilla some manufactories for baking sugar; of Bermigan, a young Spaniard; and my friend, Captain Gabriel Lafond, like myself, from Nantes.
Death of my Brother Robert Our Party at Jala-Jala Illness and Last Moments of my Friend Bermigan Recovery and Departure for France or Lafond Joachim Balthazard: his Eccentricity Tremendous Gale of Wind Narrow Escape in Crossing the Lake Safe Return to Jala-Jala Destruction of my House and the Village by a Typhoon Rendezvous with a Bandit Ineffectual Attempts to Reform Him His Death Journey to Tapuzi Its Inaccessibility Government of the Tapuzians Morality and Religious Character of their Chief Their Curiosity at Beholding a White Man Former Wickedness and Divine Punishment We bid Adieu to the Tapuzians, and Return to Jala-Jala.
During the day the invalids kept company with the ladies, while my brother and myself followed our respective avocations. But soon, alas! a shocking event disturbed the calm that reigned at Jala-Jala. Bermigan fell so dangerously ill, that a few days sufficed to convince me there was no hope of saving him.
My excellent friend, Lafond, whom sickness had reduced almost to the last stage, broke silence, and said: "Well! poor Bermigan goes to-day, and in a few days, perhaps to-morrow, it will be my turn. Just see! my dear Don Pablo; I may almost say that I no longer exist. Look at my feet my body! I am a mere skeleton; I can scarcely take any food. Ah! it is better to be dead than live like this!"
The typhoon had embraced a diameter of about two leagues, and, like a violent hurricane, had upset and shattered everything it met during its course. But enough of disasters: I return to the epoch when the death of poor Bermigan caused affliction to us all. All was prosperity in my dwelling: my Indians were happy; the population of Jala-Jala increased every day; I was beloved and respected.
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