"
Upon that I was going away; But Captain Nemo detained me,
and asked me to sit down by him. He questioned me with interest
about our excursions on shore, and our hunting; and seemed not
to understand the craving for meat that possessed the Canadian.
Then the conversation turned on various subjects, and, without being
more communicative, Captain Nemo showed himself more amiable.
Amongst other things, we happened to speak of the situation
of the Nautilus, run aground in exactly the same spot
in this strait where Dumont d'Urville was nearly lost.
Apropos of this:
"This D'Urville was one of your great sailors," said the Captain
to me, "one of your most intelligent navigators. He is the Captain
Cook of you Frenchmen. Unfortunate man of science, after having
braved the icebergs of the South Pole, the coral reefs of Oceania,
the cannibals of the Pacific, to perish miserably in a railway train!
If this energetic man could have reflected during the last moments
of his life, what must have been uppermost in his last thoughts,
do you suppose?"
So speaking, Captain Nemo seemed moved, and his emotion
gave me a better opinion of him.
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