"No, never."

"But perhaps Mrs. Weldon has visited this part of the new continent?"
asked Harris. "Americans do not fear voyages, and doubtless----"

"No, Mr. Harris," replied Mrs. Weldon. "The commercial interests of my
husband have never called him except to New Zealand, and I have not had
to accompany him elsewhere. Not one of us, then, knows this portion of
lower Bolivia."

"Well, Mrs. Weldon, you and your companions will see a singular
country, which contrasts strangely with the regions of Peru, of Brazil,
or of the Argentine Republic. Its flora and fauna would astonish a
naturalist. Ah! we may say that you have been shipwrecked at a good
place, and if we may ever thank chance----"

"I wish to believe that it is not chance which has led us here, but
God, Mr. Harris."

"God! Yes! God!" replied Harris, in the tone of a man who takes little
account of providential intervention in the things of this world.

Then, since nobody in the little troop knew either the country or its
productions, Harris took a pleasure in naming pleasantly the most
curious trees of the forest.

In truth, it was a pity that, in Cousin Benedict's case, the
entomologist was not supplemented by the botanist! If, up to this time,
he had hardly found insects either rare or new, he might have made fine