Ere this took place, my
excellent mother, unable to withstand the shocks she had received from
my supposed death, my misfortunes, and my crime, died a martyr to
maternal affection. Wishing to conform to the sentence, and to be as
near my father as I could, I removed to the kingdom of Ava, where, you
know, they are followers of Buddha. Here I continued as long as my
father lived, which was about six years. In this period, time had so
alleviated my grief, that I began to take pleasure in the cultivation of
science, which constituted my chief employment.
"After my father's death, I indulged a curiosity I had felt in my youth,
of seeing foreign countries; and I visited China, Japan, and England.
During my residence in Asia, I had discovered lunarium ore in the
mountain near Mogaun; and this circumstance, many years afterwards, when
I determined to rest from my labours, induced me to settle in that
mountain, as I have before stated. I have occasionally used the metal to
counterbalance the gravity of a small car, by which I have profited, by
a favourable wind, to indulge the melancholy satisfaction of looking
down on the tombs of my parents, and of the ill-fated Veenah:
approaching the earth near enough, in the night, to see the sacred
spots, but not enough to violate the religious injunctions of my caste;
to avoid which, however, it was sometimes necessary for me to go across
Hindostan to Arabia or Persia, and there wait for a change of wind
before I could return: and it was these excursions which suggested to
the superstitious Burmans that my form had undergone a temporary
transformation.
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