aërial traveller.
I took him on board my barge (he was a native of France): he was much
indisposed from his sudden fall into the sea, and incapable of speaking;
after some time, however, he recovered, and gave the following account
of himself, viz.: «About seven or eight days since, I cannot tell which,
for I have lost my reckoning, having been most of the time where the sun
never sets, I ascended from the Land’s End in Cornwall, in the island of
Great Britain, in the car from which I have been just taken, suspended
from a very large balloon, and took a sheep with me to try atmospheric
experiments upon: unfortunately, the wind changed within ten minutes
after my ascent, and instead of driving towards Exeter, where I intended
to land, I was driven towards the sea, over which I suppose I have
continued ever since, but much too high to make observations.
«The calls of hunger were so pressing, that the intended experiments
upon heat and respiration gave way to them. I was obliged, on the third
day, to kill the sheep for food; and being at that time infinitely above
the moon, and for upwards of sixteen hours after so very near the sun
that it scorched my eyebrows, I placed the carcase, taking care to skin
it first, in that part of the car where the sun had sufficient power,
or, in other words, where the balloon did not shade it from the sun, by
which method it was well roasted in about two hours. This has been my
food ever since.» Here he paused, and seemed lost in viewing the objects
about him. When I told him the buildings before us were the Grand
Seignior’s Seraglio at Constantinople, he seemed exceedingly affected,
as he had supposed himself in a very different situation. «The cause,»
added he, «of my long flight, was owing to the failure of a string which
was fixed to a valve in the balloon, intended to let out the inflammable
air; and if it had not been fired at, and rent in the manner before
mentioned, I might, like Mahomet, have been suspended between heaven and
earth till doomsday.»
The Grand Seignior, to whom I was introduced by the Imperial, Russian,
and French ambassadors, employed me to negotiate a matter of great
importance at Grand Cairo, and which was of such a nature that it must
ever remain a secret.
I went there in great state by land; where, having completed the
business, I dismissed almost all my attendants, and returned like a
private gentleman; the weather was delightful, and that famous river the
Nile was beautiful beyond all description; in short, I was tempted to
hire a barge to descend by water to Alexandria. On the third day of my
voyage the river began to rise most amazingly (you have all heard, I
presume, of the annual overflowing of the Nile), and on the next day it
spread the whole country for many leagues on each side! On the fifth, at
sunrise, my barge became entangled with what I at first took for shrubs,
but as the light became stronger I found myself surrounded by almonds,
which were perfectly ripe, and in the highest perfection. Upon plumbing
with a line my people found we were at least sixty feet from the ground,
and unable to advance or retreat. At about eight or nine o’clock,
as near as I could judge by the altitude of the sun, the wind rose
suddenly, and canted our barge on one side: here she filled, and I saw
no more of her for some time. Fortunately we all saved ourselves (six
men and two boys) by clinging to the tree, the boughs of which were
equal to our weight, though not to that of the barge: in this situation
we continued six weeks and three days, living upon the almonds; I need
not inform you we had plenty of water. On the forty-second day of
our distress the water fell as rapidly as it had risen, and on the
forty-sixth we were able to venture down upon _terra firma_. Our barge
was the first pleasing object we saw, about two hundred yards from the
spot where she sunk. After drying everything that was useful by the heat
of the sun, and loading ourselves with necessaries from the stores on
board, we set out to recover our lost ground, and found, by the nearest
calculation, we had been carried over garden-walls, and a variety of
enclosures, above one hundred and fifty miles. In four days, after a
very tiresome journey on foot, with thin shoes, we reached the river,
which was now confined to its banks, related our adventures to a boy,
who kindly accommodated all our wants, and sent us forward in a barge
of his own. In six days more we arrived at Alexandria, where we
took shipping for Constantinople. I was received kindly by the Grand
Seignior, and had the honour of seeing the Seraglio, to which his
highness introduced me himself.
CHAPTER X
_Pays a visit during the siege of Gibraltar to his old friend General
Elliot – Sinks a Spanish man-of-war – Wakes an old woman on the African
coast –
