How should I interpret the boldfaced lines in the paragraph?

I am reading an account written by Charles Dickens in his American Notes for General Circulation which was published in 1842.

In the paragraph from an excerpt below, Dickens is describing American friends he had met during his travel.

They are, by nature, frank, brave, cordial, hospitable, and affectionate. Cultivation and refinement seem but to enhance their warmth of heart and ardent enthusiasm; and it is the possession of these latter qualities in a most remarkable degree, which renders an educated American one of the most endearing and most generous of friends. I never was so won upon, as by this class; never yielded up my full confidence and esteem so readily and pleasurably, as to them; never can make again, in half a year, so many friends for whom I seem to entertain the regard of half a life.

Do the boldfaced lines mean that Dickens was so fascinated by the Americans that he would wish to spend half of this life with them?

And what does the phrase the regard mean in the boldfaced lines?

Solution 1:

Dickens means he made American friends in half a year, who he liked as much as if he had known them for half a life. Regard can be used to mean 'esteem' or 'liking'. A friend for whom I entertain a high regard is one I like a lot.