_A discourse on marriage between Peter and Georigetti--Peter proposes
Stygee--The king accepts it--Relates his transactions at Norbon--The
marriage is consummated--Account of the marriage-ceremony--Peter goes
to Norbon--Opens a free trade to Mount Alkoe--Gets traders to settle at
Norbon--Convoys cattle to Mount Alkoe._
AT my return to Sass Doorpt Swangeanti, I went directly to the king,
and giving him an account of the settlement, and my proceedings thereon,
he told me his whole kingdom would not be an equivalent for the services
I had done him. I begged of him to look on them in no other light than
as flowing from my duty; but if, when I should be no more, he or his
children would be gracious to my family, it was all I desired.
"This, father," says the king, "I can undertake for myself; but who's to
come after me, nobody knows, for I shall never marry. No! Yaccom-bourse
has given me a surfeit of womankind; and unless the states will settle
the kingdom on you, to which I will consent, it will probably be torn to
pieces again by different competitors, for I am the last of the line of
Begsurbeck, and of all the blood-royals; and indeed who is so proper
to maintain it flourishing as he who has brought it to the present
perfection?"
"Great sir," says I, "my ambition rises no higher than to abound in good
deeds whilst I live, and to perfect my children in the same principle;
and this, I hope, will entitle them to a support when I am gone. But,"
says I, "why is your majesty so averse from marriage, merely on account
of a woman you could not expect to be true to you?"--"Not expect it!"
says he; "what stronger tie upon earth could she have had to be true
than my affection, and all that my kingdom could afford her?"--"Weak
things all, sir," says I.--"Why, what could she have had?" said he,
in some warmth.--"Honour, sir," says I, "and virtue, both which she
abandoned to become yours; and those once lost, how could you expect her
to be true?"--"You are too hard for me, father," says he; "but they
are all alike, and I don't believe there's a grain of honour in any of
them."--"In any of them like Yaccombourse, I admit, sir," says I; "but
think not so of others, for no part of our species abounds more with
it, or is more tender of it, than a good woman; and take my word for it,
sir, there is more real sincerity in an ordinary wife than in the most
extraordinary mistress. We are all biassed naturally by interest, and
as there can be but one real interest between the man and wife, so the
interest of a mistress is, and ever will be, to accommodate herself;
for 'tis all one to her with whom she engages, so she can raise but
the market by a change. Now if your majesty could find an agreeable and
virtuous wife, one deserving of your royal person and bed, and perhaps
with a kingdom for her dowry, a partner fit to share your cares as well
as glory, would it not be a great pleasure to you to be possessed of'
such a mate, and to see heirs arising under your joint tuition, to
convey down your royal blood to the latest posterity? Would not this, I
say, be a grateful reflection to you in your declining years?"
"Truly, father," says the king, "as you have painted it, the prospect
could not fail to please, and under the circumstances you have put it,
it would meet my approbation; but where is such a thing as a woman of
this character to be found? I fear only in the imagination."
"Sir," says I, after a seeming muse for some time, "what should you
think of Oniwheske, the king of Norbon's daughter? he has but that one
child, I hear."--"Dear father, have done," says his majesty; "to what
purpose should you mention her? We but barely know that there is such
a State, we have never had any intercourse; and, besides, as you say he
has but one child, can you suppose she will ever marry, to leave so fine
a kingdom, and live here?"--"But, sir," says I, "now we are supposing,
suppose she should, with her father's consent, be willing to marry
you, would you have her for your queen?"--"To make any doubt of that,
father," says he, "is almost to suppose me a fool."--"Then, sir," says
I, "her father has consented, and she too; and if I durst have presumed
so far, or had known your mind sooner, she would I believe have ventured
with me to have become yours, but you might have slighted her, and
crowned heads are not to be trifled with; but since you are pleased
to show your approbation of it, I can assure you, sir, her person will
yield to none in your majesty's dominions; for, sir, I have been there,
and have seen her, and she is your own, and her kingdom too, upon
demand."
"Father," says the king, looking earnestly at me, "I have been
frequently, since I knew you first, in doubt of my own existence. My
life seems a dream to me; for if existence is to be judged of by one's
faculties only, I have been in such a delusion of them ever since, that
as I find myself unable to judge with certainty of any other thing, so
I am subject to doubt whether I really exist. Are these things possible
that you tell me, father?"
I then told him the whole affair, and advised him by all means to accept
the offer, and marry the princess out of hand.
His majesty, when I had brought him thoroughly to believe me, was
as eager to consummate the marriage, as I was to have him; but then,
whether he should go to her, or she come to him, was the question.
I told him it was a thing unusual for a sovereign to quit his own
dominions for a wife; but would advise an embassy to her father, with
notice that his majesty would meet and espouse her on the frontiers of
the two kingdoms.
The ambassadors returning with an appointment of time and place, it was
not above a month before I had settled Stygee on the thrones of Sass
Doorpt Swangeanti and Mount Alkoe, with the reversion of the kingdom of
Norbon, without a competitor.
I shall here give you an account of the marriage ceremony. The king
being arrived on the borders, Stygee, who had waited but a few hours
at the last village in Norbon, advanced to his majesty on the very
division, as they called it, of the two kingdoms, a line being drawn to
express the bounds of each. The king and Stygee having talked apart from
the company a little space, each standing hand in hand, on their own
respective ground, the chief ragan advanced, and began the ceremony.
He first asked each party aloud, if he and she were willing to be united
in body and affections, and would engage to continue so their whole
lives to which each party having answered aloud in the affirmative,
"Show me then a token!" says he; and immediately each expanding the
right side of their graundees, laid it upon the other's left side, so
that they appeared then but as one body, standing hand in hand, encased
round with the graundee. The ragan then having descanted upon the duties
of marriage, concluded the ceremony with wishing them as fruitful as
Perigen and Philella. So soon as it was over, and the gripsacks and
voices had finished an epithalamium, the bride and bridegroom taking
wing, were conducted to Brandleguarp, amidst the acclamations of an
infinite number of Georigetti's subjects.
The king had made vast preparations for the reception of the princess
Stygee; and nothing was to be heard or seen but feastings and rejoicing
for many days; and his majesty afterwards assured me of his entire
satisfaction in my choice of his bride, without whom he confessed,
that notwithstanding the many other blessings I had procured him, his
happiness must have been incomplete.
Intending another flight to Norbon, I was charged with the king and
queen's compliments to Oniwheske; which having executed, I opened a free
trade to Mount Alkoe; and hearing that small vessels came frequently on
the Norbonese coast, to carry off the iron and other metal from thence
unwrought, and paid part of their return in wrought metals, I ordered
some of the next that came to be stopped and brought to me; and the
day before I had fixed for my departure, notice was sent that twelve of
those traders were stopped, and in custody at the sea-side. I longed to
see them, but then considering that it would take up more time to bring
them to Apsilo the capital, where I was, than I should take in going to
them and returning, I resolved to go and examine them myself.
They told me they traded with small vessels to Norbon for metals, which
they carried home, and wrought great part of it themselves, sending it
to and dispersing it in several islands at a distance; and also sold
the unwrought to several people who carried it they knew not whither
in great ships. They said they kept abundance of hands at work in the
trade. I asked if their artificers wrought it for their own profit,
or their masters'. They told me for masters, themselves being all
slaves.--"And are you all slaves?" says I.--They told me "Yes, all but
one," pointing to him. I then ordered him to be secured and removed; and
told them if they would procure some hands to settle at Norbon and Mount
Alkoe, they should all be made free, have lands assigned them, and have
other privileges, and I did not doubt in time would become the richest
men in the country; for I understood by them they were acquainted with
the use of money. I asked them what other commodities they brought to
Norbon in exchange.
They said clothes for the people, both what they received in exchange
from others who bought their iron, and some of a coarser sort of their
own making. I found in my discourse I had with them, that out of my
eleven men there were persons of four different occupations; so I
promised those who would stay with me their freedoms, good houses, and
other rewards: and sending three hands home with the vessel, and a full
freight, according to the value of the cargo they brought, I ordered
them to engage as many as they could of their countrymen of distinct
trades, to come and settle with me; and to be sure, if they had any
grain, corn, roots, plants, or seeds, usually eaten for food, to bring
all they could get with them, and they should have good returns for
them; and as to those good hands that settled here, they should be
allowed all materials to work for their own profit the first year,
and after that they should also work for themselves, allowing the king
one-tenth of the clear profit. This took so far with them, that it was
with the utmost difficulty I got any of them to carry the ship back, for
fear they should not be able to return.
Before I parted from them, I assigned the eight who were left all proper
conveniences, and recommended them to the king's protection; and I
ordered the owner, then in custody, to be conducted to Mount Alkoe, and
from thence to Brandleguarp; where, treating him kindly and giving him
liberty, I made my proper use of him.
The king having lent me a convoy to conduct my prisoner, and given me a
license for as many cattle of the sorts I chose as I pleased to drive to
Georigetti's dominions, I made them drive a great number of sheep of the
finest wool I ever saw, and very large also; a great number of creatures
not unlike an ass for shape, but with two upright horns and short ears,
which gave abundance of rich milk; and also some swine. All these were
drove to, and distributed at my new colony, where I let them remain till
I had provided a proper receptacle for them at Doorpt Swangeanti, near
the woods; when I brought many over the Black Mountain, and distributed
there, with directions how to manage them; and in about seven years'
time we held a little beast-market near Brandle-guarp twice a year,
where the spare cattle were brought up, and preserved in salt till the
next market; for I had some years before made large salt-works near
the sea at Mount Alkoe, which employed abundance of hands, and was now
become a considerable trade.
We had iron, copper, and silver money, which went very current; and had
butter and cheese from the farms near the woods, as plenty as we had the
fruits before, great numbers of families having settled there; and there
was scarce a family but was of some occupation or other.
By the accounts I received from the mines, from time to time, it was
prodigious to hear what vast quantities of metals were prepared in
one year now, by little above one-third of the hands that were usually
employed in them before; for now the men's ambition was to leave a
good week's work done at their return, for an example to those who were
coming; and the overseers told me they would sing and work with the
greatest delight imaginable, whilst they pleased themselves with telling
one another how they intended to spend the next fourteen days.
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