The continent was as yet unexplored.

In uncertainty as to motives for man's action the French magistrate always searches for the woman,--"cherchez la femme!" One single allusion in a letter written to Badollet, in 1783, shows that there was a woman in Gallatin's horoscope.

Who she was, what her relation to him, or what influence she had upon his actions, nowhere appears.

He only says that besides Mademoiselle Pictet there was one friend, "une amie," at Geneva, from whom a permanent separation would be hard.
Confiding his purpose to his friend Serre, Gallatin easily persuaded this ardent youth to join him in his venturesome journey, and on April 1, 1780, the two secretly left Geneva.

It certainly was no burning desire to aid the Americans in their struggle for independence, such as had stirred the generous soul of Lafayette, that prompted this act.