But Stedman was a truthful-hearted fellow, if his sentiment did sometimes runto rodomontade; he left his Joanna only in the hope that a year or two inEurope would repair his ruined fortunes, and he could return to treathimself to the purchase of his own wedded wife. He describes, withunaffected pathos, their parting scene,--though, indeed, there wereseveral successive partings,--and closes the description in acharacteristic manner: "My melancholy having surpassed all description, Iat last determined to weather one or two painful years in her absence;and in the evening went to dissipate my mind at a Mr. Roux' cabinet ofIndian curiosities; where, as my eye chanced to fall on a rattlesnake, Iwill, before I leave the colony, describe this dangerous reptile."