Chapter 16 [Part 2] Chapter 1 Looking back on the past

At 8 o'clock in the morning on October 2, Garineta and Moriche first circled the right bank of the Atabab peninsula, and then sailed to the upper reaches of the Orinoco under a northeasterly wind. After last night's conversation, Sergeant Martial had to agree that JacquesElloch accompanied them to Santa Juana with his nephew.Now, let.De.Kellmer's secret had been known to his saviour, and there was no doubt that GermainPaterna will soon know too.Furthermore, from the perspective of the objective conditions of the next stage of travel, it is better to know this situation.But the two young people will keep this secret in their hearts and will not reveal it to Miguel, Felipe, Varinas, Mr. Mirabal and the Governor.When they return, if Colonel Kellmer is found, it will be up to him himself to introduce his daughter to everyone.

As for Valdez, Paschal, and the rest of the crew, it's better not to let them know what happened recently.In order to avoid unnecessary troubles during the journey, Martial called Jeanne his nephew Jean.There is a good reason for him to do so.This prudence should continue. Readers can imagine, when Jacques.Elloch told Martial that he had discovered the secret Jean.De.Kellmer turned out to be Jeanne.De.We will not repeat here the astonishment, frustration, and then annoyance of the veteran when he was in Kelmer. And when the girl saw Jacques again.Alloch and Germain.It goes without saying that she was shy when she was in Paterna.The two youths hastened to pay her homage, loyalty, and promise to keep her secret.The girl with a strong character quickly overcomes the timidity and shyness that women often have.

For you, I still let no change, she said, reaching out to the two compatriots. yes miss.Germain.Paterna bowed and replied. yes let.My dear Jean.Jacques.Elloch said that this title will be maintained until we give Jeanna.De.Miss Kellmer to her father's hands. Needless to say, for this journey to the source of the Orinoco and even beyond, Germain.Paterna thought it was inappropriate for him to comment. For his part, he'd be happy to go, and his botanical gatherings would certainly be fruitful from his trip up the river.His task as a naturalist would have been more fully fulfilled, and the Minister of National Education would surely not reproach them for the extension of his investigations.

As for Jeanne.De.Kellmer was extremely moved.Two French youths will try their best to help her and accompany her to the Santa Juana mission.For her, the two compatriots put aside all the difficulties of the journey.With their assistance, the chances of success are greatly increased.Jeanne's gratitude cannot be expressed enough for the man who saved her life and now decides to be by her side. My friend, she said to Martial, may God's will be done!God knows what he's doing. I'll have to see how it turns out before deciding whether to thank God!replied the veteran. Jacques.Elloch to Germain.Paterna said: You know we can't leave Miss Kellmer alone.

I know everything, my dear Jacques, even what you claim I do not understand!You think you're saving a boy, but you're saving a girl, and that's what happens.Obviously, it is now impossible for us to leave such an attractive character. Even if it's a boy, I don't care!Jacques.Eloch said unequivocally, no!I will not stand by and let him take such a big risk!This is our inescapable responsibility, Germain, we must accompany you to the end. Of course!Germain.Paterna said seriously. The following is Miss Kellmer's brief account of her family's experience to two of her countrymen.

Colonel Kellmer was born in 1829 and is now sixty-three years old.In 1859 he married a Martinique woman.The first two children born to the marriage died very young, and Jeanne had never seen them, which was a shock to the couple. Mr. Kellmer was an outstanding officer, with valor, tact, and talents, so that he rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming a colonel at the age of forty-one.One of his men, Martial, was first an ordinary soldier, then a corporal, then a sergeant, and remained loyal to Kellmer.At the Battle of Solferino[Note], Kellmer saved Martial's life.Later, the two joined hands in the heroic and tragic war against Prussia.

[Note] Lombardy, Italy, where Napoleon III defeated the Austrian army on June 24, 1859.The bloodiness or brutality of this battle led to the creation of the International Red Cross.Translator's note Two or three weeks before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Mrs. Kellmer had to go to Martinique due to some family matters.There she gave birth to Jeanne.The birth of the child brought endless joy to Kellmer, who was under great pain and pressure.Had he not been obliged to do his duty, he would have gone at once to the Antilles to see their mother and daughter and bring them back to France.

In this case, Mrs. Kellmer did not want to wait until her husband had finished the war to pick her up. She wanted to be reunited with her husband as soon as possible.In May 1871, she was in St.Pierre.Martinique boarded the Norton, a British cruise ship bound for Liverpool. Jeanne was only a few months old at the time.Her wet nurse, a Creole woman, also accompanied them.Madame Kellmer intended her to follow her to Nantes in Brittany, and to stay there until Jeanne was no longer nursing. On the night of May 23rd and 24th, the vast Atlantic Ocean was filled with heavy fog.The Norton was taken from Stand [Note: Port of Spain, near the Bay of Biscay.Translator's Note]'s Spanish steamer Vigo was hit.The Norton sank almost immediately after the collision, before Vigo could initiate rescue measures.All but five passengers and two crew members on board the Norton were killed.

The cabin Mrs Kellmer was in was on the side that was hit, and she didn't get out in time.Although the wet nurse ran onto the deck with the baby in her arms, she was not spared either. However, the infant Jeanne miraculously survived, thanks to a crew member on the Norton, who climbed aboard the Vigo with the baby and another crew member. The front of the Spanish steamer is slightly damaged, but the ship's machinery and equipment are still intact.After the Norton sank, the Vigo stopped at the scene of the accident and launched dinghies to retrieve the drowned.None were found alive.The ship had to sail to the nearest island in the Antilles and arrive in eight days.

Several people who escaped to the Vigo returned home from there. Among the survivors was an Heretian couple, wealthy immigrants from Havana, who wanted to adopt little Jeanne.But does the child really have no relatives now?No one knew, but a crew member on the Norton confirmed that the child's mother was French, but he did not know the lady's name.Originally, according to the usual practice, passengers would register their names in the captain's office when they boarded the ship. However, after the investigation of the collision accident, the lady's name was not found in the passenger list of the Norton.

Jeanne followed her adoptive parents to Havana.The Heretia couple also tried to find out about Jeanne's life experience, but to no avail, they ignored it and focused on raising their children.The name they gave her happened to be Juana.The girl is brilliant, hardworking and speaks French and Spanish.She is also very clear about her origin, and her adoptive parents have never hidden it from her.So there was always a thought in her mind that, in far away France, her father might be weeping for her, despairing that he would never see her again. When Colonel Kellmer learned that his wife and his unseen daughter were buried at the bottom of the sea, his grief could not be increased.During the war-torn 1871, he failed to learn of his wife's decision to take St.Pierre.Martinique set off to reunite with him, so she didn't know that she was on the Norton.Before he knew it, the disaster had already happened.He went to inquire everywhere, but there was no news.He could only assume that his wife and daughter had died along with most of the passengers and crew on board. Colonel Kellmer was in pain, he loved his wife so much, and his daughter left him without even getting a kiss from him!The double blow made the colonel a little delirious.He was seriously ill. If the loyal Martial hadn't taken care of him carefully, the head of the Kellmer family would probably have passed away. Colonel Kellmer regained his health at last, but very slowly.In 1873 he resigned his military service, renouncing a career that had brought him great honor and was sure to continue to provide him with a bright future.He was only forty-four at the time, in the prime of his life. After his resignation, Colonel Kellmer took refuge in a modest house in Chantenay-sur-Loire, near Nantes.He no longer saw any friends, except for Sergeant Marshall, who resigned at the same time as him.For Colonel Kellmer, his true love in the world has sunk forever in the sea of ​​fate, and he himself is abandoned alone on the empty and desolate coast. Two years later, Colonel Kellmer mysteriously disappeared.He left Nantes on the pretext of traveling, and Sergeant Martial waited in vain for a long time without seeing him return.He left half of his property, an annuity of about 10,000 francs, through the hands of the family notary to a loyal old comrade-in-arms.Where did he take the other half into cash?This is an unsolved mystery. Along with presenting Sergeant Martial's property, the Colonel attached a statement which read: I bid farewell to my loyal and brave veterans.I have given him a share of my property.He doesn't want to look for me, the search will be fruitless.To him, to all my friends, to this world, I am dead, just as the people I love most in the world are dead. Apart from that, Mr. Kellmer kept nothing. Sergeant Martial could not accept the idea of ​​never seeing his colonel again.He searched and asked everywhere, trying to find out where the Colonel had gone, where he had spent the rest of his miserable life after saying goodbye and being away from everyone who knew him. Meanwhile, the little girl Rangna grew up healthy and healthy in the home of her adoptive parents.Twelve years later, the Heretias finally learned a little about Jeanne's family.After further investigation, it finally became clear that Mrs. Kellmer on the Norton was Jeanne's mother, and that her father, Colonel Kellmer, was still alive. Jeanne was twelve years old at the time, and she was about to grow into a beautiful girl.She is well educated, dignified, has a strong sense of responsibility, and has extraordinary perseverance that is not commensurate with her age and gender. The Heretias felt that they should not withhold what they had just learned from their children.From the day she was told, Jeanne's thoughts seemed to be illuminated by a kind of family affection.She felt herself being called, calling her to find her father.This belief haunted her all the time, and it obviously changed her state of mind.Since she was a child, her adoptive parents have loved her as their own daughter, but now, although she is still in the family, she always wants to find Colonel Kellmer. Now that he has lived in seclusion in Brittany, his The adoptive parents in their hometown near Nantes sent a letter to the Kellmer family, asking if the colonel still lived there. When the girl learned that her father had not heard from her for several years, her heart seemed to be hit hard. Miss Kellmer then begged her adoptive parents to let her go to Europe, to France, to Nantes, where she would rediscover the trace of her father, although they said he would never find him again.What is impossible for outsiders, the party's own daughter, with the guidance of instinct, will definitely be able to do it. The Heretia couple couldn't hold back Jeanne, so they had to reluctantly let her go.Miss Kellmer sailed safely across the Atlantic from Havana, and came to Nantes.She only found Sergeant Marshall, and the old man still knew nothing about what happened after the colonel left. One can imagine the veteran's shock and excitement when the girl who is said to have died in the shipwreck of the Norton walked through the gate of Colonel Chantenay's former residence.He couldn't believe it, but he couldn't believe it.Jeanne's features reminded him immediately of the Colonel, the eyes, the face, and all the physical and spiritual resemblance that blood ties could inherit.In Martial's view, this girl was an angel sent to him by the colonel who was probably already in heaven. At that time, however, Martial had given up hope of finding Colonel Kellmer's whereabouts. Jeanna decided not to leave her father's old house. Martial returned the property he got from the colonel to Jeanna's name, and the old and the young agreed to use the money to conduct a new investigation. The Heretia couple insisted at first that JeanneDe.Mademoiselle Kellmer took them home again, but Jeanne refused, so they had to give up.Jeanne thanked her adoptive parents for everything she had done for her, and her heart was filled with gratitude. After this farewell, she might not meet her adoptive parents again in her lifetime.But in Jeanne's mind, Colonel Kellmer was alive, and it was quite possible that he was, since neither Sergeant Martial nor any of the Colonel's friends in Brittany had ever heard of it. The exact news of his death made Na want to go to him and find the father who misses the daughter, who misses her father, though father and daughter have never met They are bound together by a bond so strong and strong that nothing can break it Fold, cut continuously! The girl remained in Chantenay, with Sergeant Martial.The latter told her that she was in St.Pierre.Martinique was baptized a few days after her birth, and was christened Jeanne.From then on, her name Juana was no longer used in the Heretia family.Jeanne and Martial depended on each other, and she secretly made up her mind that as long as there was a glimmer of hope to find Colonel Kelmer, she would not let it go. But who to ask for news of the Colonel?Sergeant Marshall has exhausted all methods to inquire about this matter, has it not been fruitless?You know, Colonel Kellmer abandoned the country because he felt that he had no relatives!ah!If he knew his daughter was shipwrecked and was waiting for him at home Several years have passed.Things still don't see a silver lining.At this time, something unexpected happened, which vaguely revealed a corner of the mysterious incident.Otherwise, the whereabouts of Colonel Kellmer may become a mystery that can never be solved. This is the letter from the colonel that was sent to Nantes in 1879. It was sent from San Fernando on the Atabab River in Venezuela, a South American country, and addressed to the notary of the Kellmer family.The letter asked for a private matter for the Colonel, but at the same time asked the recipient never to tell anyone about the existence of the letter. The notary kept the secret until his death.When he died, Jeanne.De.Kellmer was still in Martinique, and no one knew she was Colonel Kellmer's daughter. It was seven years later that the letter was discovered among the papers of the deceased notary, thirteen years after it was received.The descendants of the notary have learned of Jeanne.De.Knowing that she was with Sergeant Martial and trying to find documents related to her father, he hurriedly handed over the letter to her. At this time, let Na.De.Kellmer has come of age.Her father's old comrade-in-arms took care of her as meticulously as her mother.When she was at Heretia's house, she had already received part of her education, and after coming to France, she acquired solid and comprehensive knowledge under the strict modern education system. When she got this letter, one can imagine how her heart was surging and it was hard to restrain herself!There is nothing to doubt. Colonel Kellmer was in San Fernando in 1879. Although it is not known what he did afterwards, this letter provides a clue after all. Yes, the clue has it , you can take the first step to find it.Letter after letter to the Governor of San Fernando was sent, always with the same answer.No one knew Colonel Kellmer, and no one remembered that he had been in the town, but the letter had indeed been sent from the town. In that case, what better option than a trip to San Fernando?Absolutely no girl decided to set off for this place on the upper Orinoco. Miss Kellmer has been in constant correspondence with the Heretias.She told her adoptive parents that she had decided to go where she might find her father.Although the Eretia couple also knew that the trip would be difficult, they still encouraged her to go. Let Na.De.Kellmer's demeanor was serious and her resolve was undeniable, but would Sergeant Martial agree with her plan of action?Will he raise objections?Would he stop Jeanne from fulfilling what she saw as her duty?Was he worried that it would be too hard, tiring and dangerous for Jeanna to go to Venezuela so far away?The distance is more than thousands of kilometers!To send a young girl to such a risky activity with only one veteran leading the way because if she was going, he wouldn't let her do it alone. However, my good Martial still had to agree. Jeanne said that her story to the two French youths was coming to an end. For them, there was no secret about her life experience, yes!He agreed, and he deserved it, didn't he, old friend? I really regret it now, said Sergeant Marshall, because, although we have been cautious, we have been cautious. But our secret was discovered!The girl smiled and said, so now I am not your nephew, and you are no longer my uncle!But Mr. Ailloch and Mr. Paterna won't tell anyone, will they, Mr. Ailloch? Never tell anyone, miss! Don't call me Miss, Mr. Elloher, Jeanne.De.Kellmer hurriedly said, don't get into the bad habit of yelling like that, otherwise you will slip up sooner or later.If you don't let me let you go. Yes Jean is called Jean or our dear Jean is sometimes called Germain.Paterna said. Now, Monsieur Elloch, you know what my good Martial has said to me: he becomes my uncle, I his nephew, I wear boy's clothes, cut short After shaving his hair and dressing in this way, he boarded the ship from Saint-Nazaire to Caracas.My Spanish is as good as my mother tongue which is a huge benefit to me during the trip and now I am in the town of San Fernando!When I find my father, we will go to Havana before returning to France, and I will let my father meet the kind people who raised his daughter.My father and I both want to thank them for their great kindness! Let Na.De.Kellmer said this with tears in her eyes, and restraining herself, she went on: No, my uncle, no, do not complain that our secret has been discovered, it is God's will, as if it were God who made us meet two countrymen and two faithful friends in our journey.Gentlemen, in the name of my father, I offer you my sincerest thanks for all that you have done and will do! Saying that, Jean Na turned to Jacques.Alloch and Germain.Paterna reached out his hand, and the two held it affectionately. The next day, the two young men, Sergeant Martial and Jean, will continue to use the name until the child's life experience no longer needs to be kept secret. They bid farewell to Miguel, Felipe and Varinas. The scientists are preparing to go to the confluence of Guaviare and Atabab. Although the boy has two more compatriots to help him, Miguel and the others are still very worried that the boy will go to the upper reaches of the Orinoco River. Security Question.Miguel wished him success wholeheartedly and said to him: When you return victorious, my dear child, maybe the few of us have not reached an agreement, so you can meet us again here The governor of San Fernand gave them some letters on the occasion of parting, and they could take the governor's letter to ask for help from the missionaries in the main towns upstream.Monsieur Mirabal held Jean tightly in his arms.After saying goodbye, JacquesAlloch, Germain.Paterne, Martial and Jean boarded their respective boats. Residents of the town also came to see him off.A burst of cheers erupted from the crowd to greet the two boats as they pulled away from the left bank.As soon as the boat rounded the rocks at the confluence of Atabab and Guaviare, it entered the main Orinoco again and disappeared over the eastern waters.