One thing, however, guided me, which was this:  that desire, to be satisfied at all, must be satisfied at once; and of the many new countries I might seek that would most attract me whose ship was starting soonest.  So I looked round for mooring cables in the place of anchor chains, for Blue Peter, for smoke from funnels, for little boats coming and going, and for all that shows a steamboat to be off; when I saw, just behind a large new boat in such a condition of bustle, a sign in huge yellow letters staring on a bright black ground, which said, “To the Balearic Islands, eight shillings”; underneath, in smaller yellow letters, was written:  “Gentlemen The Honourable Travellers are warned that they must pay for any food they consume.”  When I had read this notice I said to myself:  “I will go to the Balearic Islands, of which the rich have never heard.  I, poor and unencumbered, will go and visit these remote places, which have in their time received all the influences of the world, and which yet have no history; for I am tired of this Africa, where so many men are different from me.”  As I said this to myself I saw a little picture in my mind of three small islands standing in the middle of the sea, quite alone, and inhabited by happy men; but this picture, as it always is with such pictures, was not at all the same as what I saw when next morning the islands rose along the north to which we steered.

I went down to the quay by some large stone steps which an Englishman had built many years ago, and I entered the office above which this great sign was raised.  Within was a tall man of doubtful race, smoking a cigarette made of loose paper, and gazing kindly at the air.  He was full of reveries.  Of this man I asked when the boat would be starting.  He told me it started in half an hour, a little before the setting of the sun.  So I bought a ticket for eight shillings, upon which it was clearly printed in two languages that I had bound myself to all manner of things by the purchase, and especially that I might not go below, but must sit upon deck all night; nevertheless, I was glad to hold that little bit of printed prose, for it would enable me to reach the Balearic Islands, which for all other men are names in a dream.  I then went up into the town of Algiers, and was careful to buy some ham from a Jew, some wine from a Mohammedan, and some bread and chocolate from a very indifferent Christian.  After that I got aboard.  As I came over the side I heard the sailors, stokers, and people all talking to each other in low tones, and I at once recognised the tongue called Catalan.

I had heard this sort of Latin in many places, some lonely and some populous.  I had heard it once from a chemist at Perpignan who dressed a wound of mine, and this was the first time I heard it.  Very often after in the valleys of the Pyrenees, in the Cerdagne, and especially in Andorra, hundreds of men had spoken to me in Catalan.  At Urgel, that notable city where there is only one shop and