, mineralogist and educator who was born in Nesvizh
, Imperial Russia (present-day Belarus
), into a Polish-Lithuanian
family. Domeyko spent most of his life, and died, in his adopted country, Chile
.
After a youth passed in the partitioned Polish-Lithuanian lands, Domeyko participated in the November 1830 Uprising
against the Russian Empire
.
"I have never felt so bad as now, and it is only to God that I can turn for consolation, strength and deliverance. As I was leaving Poland, I had so many people in this world who loved me like their own child, and I too loved so many people, that I almost forgot about God. But since then all those who loved me so much have died..."
"I see the whole world open before me; the only place that remains sealed off is Poland, and suddenly I feel the atmosphere so close about me that at times it is difficult to breathe."
"It is hard to spend one’s fifteenth Easter away from his native country. If throughout the year of an exile's life one constantly feeds on longing as if it were his daily bread, on solemn holidays this longing becomes doubled and I can think of nothing but my country.[...] I tell you that when my native land loomed closer to me than my old age, I did not care about it [...]; today, when I see my old age closer to me than my country, I feel so much the worse for it."