_Peter sends for his family--A rising of former slaves on that
account--Takes a view of the city--Description of it, and of the
country--Hot and cold springs._
HAVING now some leisure time on my hands to consider over my own
affairs, I had thoughts of transporting my family, with all my effects,
to Sass Doorpt Swangeanti, but yet had no mind to relinquish all thought
of my ship and cargo; for the greatest part of this was still remaining,
I having had but the pickings through the gulf. I once had a mind to
have gone myself; but considering the immense distance over sea, though
I had once come safe, I thought I ought not to tempt Providence, where
my presence was not absolutely necessary.
Nasgig, to whose care and conduct any enterprise might be trusted,
offered his service to go and execute any commands I should give him.
His only difficulty, he said, was that it would be impossible for him to
remember the different names of many things, which he had no idea of, to
convey the knowledge of them to his mind when he saw them; but barring
that, he doubted not to give me satisfaction. I told him I would send
an assistant with him, who could remember whatever I once told him; and
that I might not burden his memory with names only, Lasmeel should carry
his memory with him, and that he, Nasgig, should only have the executive
part.
Lasmeel, who had sat waiting an opportunity to put in for a share in the
adventure, having a longing desire to see the ship, told Nasgig he had
a peculiar art of memory, so as to remember whatever he would as long
as he pleased, and that if he carried that with him, they need fear no
mistakes.
The king having granted me as many of his guards as I pleased, for the
carriage of my things, we appointed them to be ready on the fourth day;
when Nasgig and Lasmeel set out with them.
I ordered Lasmeel, however, to be with me the next morning, that we
might set down proper instructions; which I told him would be very long,
and that he must bring a good number of leaves with him.
When Lasmeel entered my chamber next morning, he informed me that the
whole city was in an uproar, especially those who had been freed by me.
"What!" says I, "have they so soon forgot their subjection, to misapply
their liberty already? But step and bring me word what's the matter, and
order some of the ringleaders hither to me." Lasmeel upon inquiry found
that it had been given out I was going to leave the country, and they
all said, wherever I went they were determined to go and settle with me;
for if I left them, they should be reduced to slavery again. However, he
brought some of them to me, and upon my telling them I thanked them for
their affection to me, but blamed them for showing it in so tumultuous a
manner, and that I was so far from intending to leave them, that I was
sending for my family and effects in order to settle amongst them, they
rejoiced very much, and told me they would carry the good news to their
companions, and disperse immediately. But I was now in more perplexity
than before, for they having signified my designs to the rest, they
rushed into the gallery in such numbers that they forced me up to my
very chamber. I told them this was an unprecedented manner of using a
person they pretended a kindness for; and told them if they made use of
such risings to express their gratitude to me, it would be the direct
means to oblige me to leave them: "For," says I, "do you think I can be
safe in a kingdom where greater deference is paid to me than to the
crown?" They begged my pardon, they said, and would obey me in anything;
but the present trouble was only to offer their services to fetch my
family and goods, or to do anything else I should want them for; and if
I would favour them in that, they would retire directly. I told them
when I had considered of it they should hear from me; and this again
quieted them.
This disturbance not only took up much of my time, which I could have
better employed, but put me to a non-plus how to come off with them;
till I sent Maleck to tell them though I set a great value upon their
esteem, yet after what had passed, it would be the most unadvisable
thing in nature for me to accept their kindness; for having before
requested a body of men of the king, as he had graciously granted them,
it would be preferring them to the king, should I now relinquish his
grant and make use of their offer; and after this I heard no more of it.
I had scarce met with a more difficult task than to fix exact rules for
the conduct of my present undertaking, there being so many things to be
expressed, wherein the least perplexity arising, might have caused both
delay and damage; for I was not only forced to set down the things I
would have brought, but the manner and method of packing and securing
them; but as Lasmeel could read my writing to Pedro at home, and
Youwarkee on board, it would be a means, though far from an expeditious
one, of bringing matters into some order; and after I had done as I
thought, I could have enumerated many more things, and was obliged to
add an _et cætera_ to the end of my catalogue; and while they were ready
for flight, I added divers other particulars and circumstances. Nay,
when they were even upon the graundee, I recollected the most material
thing of all; for my greatest concern was, having broke up so many of my
chests, to find package for the things; I say, even so late as that, I
bethought me of the several great water-casks I had on board, that would
hold an infinite number of small things, and would be slung easily; so I
stopped them and set down that, and they were no sooner out of sight and
hearing, but remembering twenty more, I was then forced to trust them to
my _et cætera_.
I had sent my own flying-chair to bring the boys who had not the
graundee, with orders for Pedro to sit tied in the chair, with Dicky
tied in his arms; Jemmy to sit tied to the board before the chair, and
David behind: so I hoped they would come safe enough; and then my wife
and Sally were able to help themselves.
Having despatched my caravan, and being all alone, I called Quilly the
next morning, and telling him I had thoughts of viewing the country, I
bade him prepare to go with me.
I had now been here above six months, and yet upon coming to walk
gravely about the city, I found myself as much a stranger to the
knowledge of the place as if that had been the first day of my arrival,
though I had been over it several times in my chair.
This city is not only one of, but actually the most curious piece
of work in the world, and consists of one immense entire stone of a
considerable height, and it may be seven miles in length, and near as
broad as it is long. The streets and habitable part of it are scooped,
as it were, out of the solid stone, to the level with the rest of the
country, very flat and smooth at bottom, the rock rising perpendicular
from the streets on each side.
[Illustration: 8221]
The figure of the city is a direct square; each side about six miles
long, with a large open circle in the centre of the square, about a
mile in diameter, and from each of the sides of the outer streets to the
opposite side runs another street, cutting the centre of the circle as
in the figure.
Along the whole face of the rock, bounding the streets and the circle,
there are archways; those in the circle, and the four cross streets, for
the gentry and better people; and those in the outer streets, for the
meaner; and it is as easy to know as by a sign where a great man lives,
by the grandeur of his entrance, and lavish distribution of the pillars,
carving, and statues about his portico, within and without: for as they
have no doors, you may look in, and are not forbid entrance; and though
it should look odd to an English reader, that an Englishman should
speak with pleasure of a land of darkness, as that almost was, yet I am
satisfied whoever shall see it after me will be persuaded, that for
the real grandeur of their entrances, and for the magnificence of the
apartments and sculpture, no part of the universe can produce the like;
and though within doors there is no other manner of light than the
sweecoes, yet that, when you are once used to it, is so agreeable and
free from all noisome savour, that I never once regretted the loss of
the sun within doors, though I often have when abroad; but then that
would be injurious to the proper inhabitants, though they can no more
see in total darkness than myself.
I have been over some of these private houses, which contain, it may
be, thirty rooms, great and small, some higher, some lower, full of
sweecoe-lights, and extremely well proportioned and beautiful.
The king's palace, with all the apartments, stands in, and takes up,
one full fourth part of the square of the whole city; and is, indeed, of
itself a perfect city.
There is no great man's house without one or more long galleries for
the ladies to divert themselves at divers sports in, particularly at one
like our bowls on a bowling-green, and at somewhat like nine-holes, at
which they play for wines, and drink a great deal, for none of them will
intoxicate.
In my walk and survey of the city, one of the colambs being making a
house to reside in when at Brandleguarp, I had the curiosity to go in.
I saw there abundance of botts stand filled with a greenish liquor, and
asked Quilly what that was. He said it was what the stone-men used in
making houses. I proceeded farther in, where I saw several men at work,
and stayed a good while to observe them. Each man had a bott of this
liquor in his left hand, and stood before a large bank of stone, it may
be 30 feet high, reaching forward up to the ceiling of the place, and
ascending by steps from bottom to top; the workmen standing some on one
step, some on another, pouring on this liquor with their left hands, and
with their right holding a wooden tool, shaped like a little spade. I
observed wherever they poured on this water, a smoke arose for a little
space of time, and then the place turned white, which was scraped off
like fine powder with the spade-handle; and then pouring new liquor, he
scraped again, working all the while by sweecoe-lights.
Having my watch in my pocket, I measured a spot of a yard long, about a
foot high, and a foot and a half on the upper flat, to see how long he
would be fetching down that piece; and he got it away in little above
two hours. By this means I came to know how they made their houses;
for I had neither seen any tool I thought proper, nor even iron itself,
except my own, since I came into the country. Upon inquiry, I found that
the scrapings of this stone, and a portion of common earth, mixed with a
water they have, will cement like plaster; and they use it in the small
ornamental work of their buildings. I then went farther into this house,
where I saw one making the figure of a glumm by the same method; but it
standing upright in the solid rock against the wall, the workman held
his liquor in an open shell, and dipping such stuff as my bed was made
of, bound up in short rolls, some larger, some less, into the liquor,
he touched the figure, and then scraped till he had reduced it into a
perfect piece.
It is impossible to imagine how this work rids away; for in ten months'
time after I saw it, this house was completed, having a great number
of fine, large, and lofty rooms in it, exquisitely carved to all
appearance.
My wonder ceased as to the palace, when I saw how easily this work was
done; but sure there is no other such room in the world as Begsurbeck's,
that I described above.
The palace, as I said before, taking up one quarter of the city, opens
into four streets by four different arches; and before one of the sides,
which I call the front, is a large triangle, formed by the entrance
out of one of the cross streets, and the two ends of the front of
the palace. Along the lower front of it, all the way runs a piazza of
considerable height, supported by vast round columns, which seemed to
bear up the whole front of the rock, over which was a gallery of equal
length, with balustrades along it, supported with pillars of a yet finer
make, and over that a pediment with divers figures, and other work, to
the top of the rock, which being there quite even for its whole length,
was enclosed with balustrades between pedestals all the way, on which
stood the statues of their ancient kings, so large as to appear equal to
the life. The other two sides of the triangle were dwellings for divers
officers belonging to the palace. Under the middle arch of the piazza
was the way into the palace, through a long, spacious arched passage,
whose farther end opened into a large square; on each side of this
passage were large staircases, if I may so call them, by which you
ascend gradually, and without steps, into the upper apartments.
The next morning we took another walk, for I told Quilly I had a mind to
take a prospect of the country. We then went out at the back arch of the
palace, as we had the day before at one of the sides, there being a like
passage through the rock from that we went out at, to an opposite arch
leading into the garden. I say, we went out at the back arch, and after
passing a large quadrangle with lodgings all round it, we ascended
through a cut in the rock to a large flat, where we plainly saw the
Black Mountain with its top in the very sky, the sides of which afforded
numberless trees, though the ground within view afforded very little
verdure, or even shrubs. But the most beautiful sight from the rock
was to see the people come home loaded from the mountain, and from the
woods, with, it may be, forty pound weight each on their backs; and
mounting over the rock, to see them dart along the streets to their
several dwellings, over the heads of thousands of others walking in all
parts of the streets, while others were flying other ways. It was very
pleasant to see a man walking gravely in one street, and as quick as
thought to see him over the rock, settled in another, perhaps two miles
distant.
The near view of the country seeming so barren, naturally led me to ask
Quilly from whence they got provision for so many people as the city
contained, which, to be sure, could not be less than three hundred
thousand. He told me that they had nothing but what came from the Great
Forest on the skirts of the mountain. "But for the grain of it, and some
few outward marks," says I, "I could have sworn I had eaten some of my
country beef the other day at the king's table."--"I don't know what
your beef, as you call it, is; but I am sure we have nothing here but
the fruit of some tree or shrub, that ever I heard of."--"I wonder,"
says I, "Quilly, how your cooks dress their victuals. I have eaten many
things boiled, and otherwise dressed hot, but have seen no rivers, or
water, since I came into this country, except for drinking, or washing
my hands, and I don't know where that comes from. And another thing,"
says I, "surprises me, though I see no sun as we have to warm the air,
you are very temperate in the town, and it is seldom cold here; but I
neither see fire nor smoke."--"We have," says Quilly, "several very good
springs under the palace, both of hot water and cold, and I don't know
what we should do with fires; we see the dread of them sufficiently at
Mount Alkoe. Our cooks dress their fruits at the hot springs."--"That is
a fancy," said I; "they cannot boil them there."--"I am sure we have no
other dressing," says he.--"Well, Quilly," says I, "we will go home the
way you told me of, and to-morrow you shall show me the springs; but,
pray, how come you to be so much afraid of Mount Alkoe? I suppose your
eyes won't bear the light; is not that all?"--"No, no," says Quilly,
"that is the country of bad men. Some of us have flown over there
accidentally, when the mountain has been cool, as it is sometimes for
a good while together, and have heard such noises as would frighten any
honest man out of his senses, for there they beat and punish bad men."
I could not make much of his story, nor did I inquire further, for I had
before determined, if possible, to get over thither. As we were now come
into the garden, I ordered Quilly to get ready my dinner, and I would
come in presently.
We went next morning to view the springs, and indeed it was a sight
well worth considering. We were in divers offices under the rock (Quilly
carrying two globe-lights before me), in which were springs of very
clear water, some of hot, and some of cold, rising within two or three
inches of the surface of the floor. We then went into the kitchen, which
was bigger than I ever saw one of our churches, and where were a great
number of these springs, the hot all boiling full speed day and night,
and smoking like a caldron, the water rising through very small chinks
in the stone into basons, some bigger, some less; and they had several
deep stone jars to set anything to boil in. But what was the most
surprising was, you should see a spring of very cold water within a few
feet of one of hot, and they never rise higher or sink lower than they
are. I talked with the master cook, an ingenious man, about them; and he
told me they lie in this manner all over the rocky part of the country,
and that the first thing any one does in looking out for a house, is
to see for the water, whether both hot and cold may be found within the
compass he designs to make use of; and finding that, he goes on, or else
searches another place. And he told me where this convenience was not
in great plenty the people did not inhabit, which made the towns all so
very populous. He said, too, that those warm springs made the air more
wholesome about the towns than in other parts where there were none of
them. I thanked him for his information, which finished my search for
that time.
[Illustration: 0229]