"He soon distinguished me from the rest of his visiters, by addressing
questions to me relative to my history and adventures, and I, in turn,
was gratified to have met with one who took an interest in my
concerns, and who alone, of all I had here met with, could either
enter into my feelings or comprehend my opinions. Our conversations
were earned on in English, which he spoke with facility and
correctness We soon found ourselves so much to each other's taste,
that there was seldom an evening that I did not make him a visit, and
pass an hour or two in his company
"I learned from him that he was born and bred at Benares, in
Hindostan, that he had been intended for the priesthood, and had been
well instructed in the literature of the east That a course of
untoward circumstances, upon which he seemed unwilling to dwell, had
changed his destination, and made him a wanderer on the face of the
earth That in the neighbouring kingdom of Siam he had formed an
intimacy with a learned French Jesuit, who had not only taught him his
language, but imparted to him a knowledge of much of the science of
Europe, its institutions and manners That after the death of this
friend, he had renewed his wanderings, and having been detained in
this village by a fit of sickness for some weeks, he was warned that
it was time to quit his rambling life.
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