Note: This is part 1 of Seconde Patrie. Translated by Cranstoun Metcalfe. This translation begins: "The dry season set in at the beginning of the second week of October. This is the first spring month in the Southern zone. The winter in this nineteenth degree of latitude between the Equator and the tropic of Capricorn had not been very severe. The inhabitants of New Switzerland would soon be able to resume their wonted labours."