roleplaying:munchausen:chapter_xxiv
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+ | ====== TRAVELS OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN ====== | ||
+ | ===== CHAPTER XXIV ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | //The Baron secures his chariot, &c., at the Cape and takes his | ||
+ | passage for England in a homeward-bound Indiaman--Wrecked upon an | ||
+ | island of ice, near the coast of Guinea--Escapes from the wreck, | ||
+ | and rears a variety of vegetables upon the island--Meets some | ||
+ | vessels belonging to the negroes bringing white slaves from | ||
+ | Europe, in retaliation, | ||
+ | climate near the South Pole--Arrives in England, and lays an | ||
+ | account of his expedition before the Privy Council--Great | ||
+ | preparations for a new expedition--The Sphinx, Gog and Magog, and | ||
+ | a great company attend him--The ideas of Hilaro Frosticos | ||
+ | respecting the interior parts of Africa.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | I perceived with grief and consternation the miscarriage of all my | ||
+ | apparatus; yet I was not absolutely dejected: a great mind is never | ||
+ | known but in adversity. With permission of the Dutch governor the | ||
+ | chariot was properly laid up in a great storehouse, erected at the | ||
+ | water' | ||
+ | so terrible a voyage. Well, you may be sure they deserved it, and | ||
+ | therefore every attendance was engaged for them, until I should | ||
+ | return. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As it was not possible to do anything more I took my passage in a | ||
+ | homeward-bound Indiaman, to return to London, and lay the matter | ||
+ | before the Privy Council. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We met with nothing particular until we arrived upon the coast of | ||
+ | Guinea, where, to our utter astonishment, | ||
+ | seemingly of glass, advancing against us in the open sea; the rays of | ||
+ | the sun were reflected upon it with such splendour, that it was | ||
+ | extremely difficult to gaze at the phenomenon. I immediately knew it | ||
+ | to be an island of ice, and though in so very warm a latitude, | ||
+ | determined to make all possible sail from such horrible danger. We did | ||
+ | so, but all in vain, for about eleven o' | ||
+ | hard gale, and exceedingly dark, we struck upon the island. Nothing | ||
+ | could equal the distraction, | ||
+ | crew, until I, knowing there was not a moment to be lost, cheered up | ||
+ | their spirits, and bade them not despond, but do as I should request | ||
+ | them. In a few minutes the vessel was half full of water, and the | ||
+ | enormous castle of ice that seemed to hem us in on every side, in some | ||
+ | places falling in hideous fragments upon the deck, killed one half of | ||
+ | the crew; upon which, getting upon the summit of the mast, I contrived | ||
+ | to make it fast to a great promontory of the ice, and calling to the | ||
+ | remainder of the crew to follow me, we all escaped from the wreck, and | ||
+ | got upon the summit of the island. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The rising sun soon gave us a dreadful prospect of our situation, and | ||
+ | the loss, or rather iceification, | ||
+ | frozen over and buried in such a manner that we could behold her under | ||
+ | our feet, even in the central solidity of the island. Having debated | ||
+ | what was best to be done, we immediately cut down through the ice, and | ||
+ | got up some of the cables of the vessel, and the boats, which, making | ||
+ | fast to the island, we towed it with all our might, determined to | ||
+ | bring home island and all, or perish in the attempt. On the summit of | ||
+ | the island we placed what oakum and dregs of every kind of matter we | ||
+ | could get from the vessel, which, in the space of a very few hours, on | ||
+ | account of the liquefying of the ice, and the warmth of the sun, were | ||
+ | transformed into a very fine manure; and as I had some seeds of exotic | ||
+ | vegetables in my pocket, we shortly had a sufficiency of fruits and | ||
+ | roots growing upon the island to supply the whole crew, especially the | ||
+ | bread-fruit tree, a few plants of which had been in the vessel; and | ||
+ | another tree, which bore plum-puddings so very hot, and with such | ||
+ | exquisite proportion of sugar, fruit, &c., that we all acknowledged it | ||
+ | was not possible to taste anything of the kind more delicious in | ||
+ | England: in short, though the scurvy had made such dreadful progress | ||
+ | among the crew before our striking upon the ice, the supply of | ||
+ | vegetables, and especially the bread-fruit and pudding-fruit, | ||
+ | almost immediate stop to the distemper. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We had not proceeded thus many weeks, advancing with incredible | ||
+ | fatigue by continual towing, when we fell in with a fleet of Negro- | ||
+ | men, as they call them. These wretches, I must inform you, my dear | ||
+ | friends, had found means to make prizes of those vessels from some | ||
+ | Europeans upon the coast of Guinea, and tasting the sweets of luxury, | ||
+ | had formed colonies in several new discovered islands near the South | ||
+ | Pole, where they had a variety of plantations of such matters as would | ||
+ | only grow in the coldest climates. As the black inhabitants of Guinea | ||
+ | were unsuited to the climate and excessive cold of the country, they | ||
+ | formed the diabolical project of getting Christian slaves to work for | ||
+ | them. For this purpose they sent vessels every year to the coast of | ||
+ | Scotland, the northern parts of Ireland, and Wales, and were even | ||
+ | sometimes seen off the coast of Cornwall. And having purchased, or | ||
+ | entrapped by fraud or violence, a great number of men, women, and | ||
+ | children, they proceeded with their cargoes of human flesh to the | ||
+ | other end of the world, and sold them to their planters, where they | ||
+ | were flogged into obedience, and made to work like horses all the rest | ||
+ | of their lives. | ||
+ | |||
+ | My blood ran cold at the idea, while every one on the island also | ||
+ | expressed his horror that such an iniquitous traffic should be | ||
+ | suffered to exist. But, except by open violence, it was found | ||
+ | impossible to destroy the trade, on account of a barbarous prejudice, | ||
+ | entertained of late by the negroes, that the white people have no | ||
+ | souls! However, we were determined to attack them, and steering down | ||
+ | our island upon them, soon overwhelmed them: we saved as many of the | ||
+ | white people as possible, but pushed all the blacks into the water | ||
+ | again. The poor creatures we saved from slavery were so overjoyed, | ||
+ | that they wept aloud through gratitude, and we experienced every | ||
+ | delightful sensation to think what happiness we should shower upon | ||
+ | their parents, their brothers and sisters and children, by bringing | ||
+ | them home safe, redeemed from slavery, to the bosom of their native | ||
+ | country. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Having happily arrived in England, I immediately laid a statement of | ||
+ | my voyage, &c., before the Privy Council, and entreated an immediate | ||
+ | assistance to travel into Africa, and, if possible, refit my former | ||
+ | machine, and take it along with the rest. Everything was instantly | ||
+ | granted to my satisfaction, | ||
+ | for departure as soon as possible. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As the Emperor of China had sent a most curious animal as a present to | ||
+ | Europe, which was kept in the Tower, and it being of an enormous | ||
+ | stature, and capable of performing the voyage with //éclat//, she was | ||
+ | ordered to attend me. She was called Sphinx, and was one of the most | ||
+ | tremendous though magnificent figures I ever beheld. She was harnessed | ||
+ | with superb trappings to a large flat-bottomed boat, in which was | ||
+ | placed an edifice of wood, exactly resembling Westminster Hall. Two | ||
+ | balloons were placed over it, tackled by a number of ropes to the | ||
+ | boat, to keep up a proper equilibrium, | ||
+ | overturning, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The interior of the edifice was decorated with seats, in the form of | ||
+ | an amphitheatre, | ||
+ | lords, as a council and retinue for your humble servant. Nearly in the | ||
+ | centre was a seat elegantly decorated for myself, and on either side | ||
+ | of me were placed the famous Gog and Magog in all their pomp. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Lord Viscount Gosamer being our postillion, we floated gallantly | ||
+ | down the river, the noble Sphinx gambolling like the huge leviathan, | ||
+ | and towing after her the boat and balloons. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Thus we advanced, sailing gently, into the open sea; being calm | ||
+ | weather, we could scarcely feel the motion of the vehicle, and passed | ||
+ | our time in grand debate upon the glorious intention of our voyage, | ||
+ | and the discoveries that would result. | ||
+ | |||
+ | "I am of opinion," | ||
+ | Africa was originally inhabited for the greater part, or, I may say, | ||
+ | subjugated by lions which, next to man, seem to be the most dreaded of | ||
+ | all mortal tyrants. The country in general--at least, what we have | ||
+ | been hitherto able to discover, seems rather inimical to human life; | ||
+ | the intolerable dryness of the place, the burning sands that overwhelm | ||
+ | whole armies and cities in general ruin, and the hideous life many | ||
+ | roving hordes are compelled to lead, incline me to think, that if ever | ||
+ | we form any great settlements therein, it will become the grave of our | ||
+ | countrymen. Yet it is nearer to us than the East Indies, and I cannot | ||
+ | but imagine, that in many places every production of China, and of the | ||
+ | East and West Indies, would flourish, if properly attended to. And as | ||
+ | the country is so prodigiously extensive and unknown, what a source of | ||
+ | discovery must not it contain! In fact, we know less about the | ||
+ | interior of Africa than we do of the moon; for in this latter we | ||
+ | measure the very prominences, | ||
+ | inequalities of the surface through our glasses-- | ||
+ | |||
+ | " | ||
+ | |||
+ | "But we see nothing in the interior of Africa, but what some compilers | ||
+ | of maps or geographers are fanciful enough to imagine. What a happy | ||
+ | event, therefore, should we not expect from a voyage of discovery and | ||
+ | colonisation undertaken in so magnificent a style as the present! what | ||
+ | a pride--what an acquisition to philosophy!" | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | Go to [[CHAPTER XXV]] | ||
+ | |||
roleplaying/munchausen/chapter_xxiv.txt · Last modified: 2005/11/22 18:02 by 127.0.0.1