My next voyage was not so prosperous. By violent storms lasting seven
weeks, during which we saw neither the sun nor the stars, our ship was
driven so far out of its course that the captain had no knowledge of where
we were. At the end of that period we were blown ashore and wrecked on a
coast so wild and desolate that I had never seen anything so terrifying.
Through a manifest interposition of Divine Providence I was spared, though
all my companions perished miserably in the waves that had crushed the
ship among the rocks.
As soon as I was sufficiently recovered from my fatigue and bruises, and
had rendered thanks to merciful Heaven for my deliverance, I set out for
the interior of the country, taking with me a cutlas for protection
against wild beasts and a bag of sea-biscuit for sustenance. I walked
vigorously, for the weather was then cool and pleasant, and after I had
gone a few miles from the inhospitable coast I found the country open and
level. The earth was covered with a thick growth of crimson grass, and at
wide intervals were groups of trees. These were very tall, their tops in
many instances invisible in a kind of golden mist, or haze, which proved
to be, not a transient phenomenon, but a permanent one, for never in that
country has the sun been seen, nor is there any night. The haze seems to
be self-luminous, giving a soft, yellow light, so diffused that shadows
are unknown. The land is abundantly supplied with pools and rivulets,
whose water is of a beautiful orange color and has a pleasing perfume
somewhat like attar of rose. I observed all this without surprise and with
little apprehension, and went forward, feeling that anything, however
novel and mysterious, was better than the familiar terrors of the sea and
the coast.
After traveling a long time, though how long I had not the means to
determine, I arrived at the city of Momgamwo, the capital of the kingdom
of Batrugia, on the mainland of the Hidden Continent, where it is always
twelve o'clock.
The Batrugians are of gigantic stature, but mild and friendly disposition.
They offered me no violence, seeming rather amused by my small stature.
One of them, who appeared to be a person of note and consequence, took me
to his house (their houses are but a single story in height and built of
brass blocks), set food before me, and by signs manifested the utmost good
will. A long time afterward, when I had learned the language of the
country, he explained that he had recognized me as an American pigmy, a
race of which he had some little knowledge through a letter from a
brother, who had been in my country. He showed me the letter, of which the
chief part is here presented in translation:
"You ask me, my dear Tgnagogu, to relate my adventures among the
Americans, as they call themselves. My adventures were very brief, lasting
altogether not more than three _gumkas_, and most of the time was passed
in taking measures for my own safety.
"My skyship, which had been driven for six moons before an irresistible
gale, passed over a great city just at daylight one morning, and rather
than continue the voyage with a lost reckoning I demanded that I be
permitted to disembark. My wish was respected, and my companions soared
away without me. Before night I had escaped from the city, by what means
you know, and with my remarkable experiences in returning to civilization
all Batrugia is familiar. The description of the strange city I have
reserved for you, by whom only could I hope to be believed. Nyork, as its
inhabitants call it, is a city of inconceivable extent--not less, I should
judge, than seven square _glepkeps_! Of the number of its inhabitants I
can only say that they are as the sands of the desert. They wear
clothing--of a hideous kind, 'tis true--speak an apparently copious though
harsh language, and seem to have a certain limited intelligence. They are
puny in stature, the tallest of them being hardly higher than my breast.
"Nevertheless, Nyork is a city of giants. The magnitude of all things
artificial there is astounding! My dear Tgnagogu, words can give you no
conception of it. Many of the buildings, I assure you, are as many as
fifty _sprugas_ in height, and shelter five thousand persons each. And
these stupendous structures are so crowded together that to the spectator
in the narrow streets below they seem utterly devoid of design and
symmetry--mere monstrous aggregations of brick, stone and metal--mountains
of masonry, cliffs and crags of architecture hanging in the sky!
"A city of giants inhabited by pigmies! For you must know, oh friend of my
liver, that the rearing of these mighty structures could not be the work
of the puny folk that swarm in ceaseless activity about their bases. These
fierce little savages invaded the island in numbers so overwhelming that
the giant builders had to flee before them. Some escaped across great
bridges which, with the help of their gods, they had suspended in the air
from bank to bank of a wide river parting the island from the mainland,
but many could do no better than mount some of the buildings that they had
reared, and there, in these inaccessible altitudes, they dwell to-day,
still piling stone upon stone. Whether they do this in obedience to their
instinct as builders, or in hope to escape by way of the heavens, I had
not the means to learn, being ignorant of the pigmy tongue and in
continual fear of the crowds that followed me.
"You can see the giants toiling away up there in the sky, laying in place
the enormous beams and stones which none but they could handle. They look
no bigger than beetles, but you know that they are many _sprugas_ in
stature, and you shudder to think what would ensue if one should lose his
footing. Fancy that great bulk whirling down to earth from so dizzy an
altitude!...
"May birds ever sing above your grave.
"JOQUOLK WAK MGAPY."
By my new friend, Tgnagogu, I was presented to the King, a most
enlightened monarch, who not only reigned over, but ruled absolutely, the
most highly civilized people in the world. He received me with gracious
hospitality, quartered me in the palace of his Prime Minister, gave me for
wives the three daughters of his Lord Chamberlain, and provided me with an
ample income from the public revenues. Within a year I had made a fair
acquaintance with the Batrugian language, and was appointed royal
interpreter, with a princely salary, although no one speaking any other
tongue, myself and two native professors of rhetoric excepted, had ever
been seen in the kingdom.
One day I heard a great tumult in the street, and going to a window saw,
in a public square opposite, a crowd of persons surrounding some high
officials who were engaged in cutting off a man's head. Just before the
executioner delivered the fatal stroke, the victim was asked if he had
anything to say. He explained with earnestness that the deed for which he
was about to suffer had been inspired and commanded by a brass-headed cow
and four bushels of nightingales' eggs!
"Hold! hold!" I shouted in Batrugian, leaping from the window and forcing
a way through the throng; "the man is obviously insane!"
"Friend," said a man in a long blue robe, gently restraining me, "it is
not proper for you to interrupt these high proceedings with irrelevant
remarks. The luckless gentleman who, in accordance with my will as Lord
Chief Justice, has just had the happiness to part with his head was so
inconsiderate as to take the life of a fellow-subject."
"But he was insane," I persisted, "clearly and indisputably _ptig nupy
uggydug_!"--a phrase imperfectly translatable, meaning, as near as may be,
having flitter-mice in his campanile.
"Am I to infer," said the Lord Chief Justice, "that in your own honorable
country a person accused of murder is permitted to plead insanity as a
reason why he should not be put to death?"
"Yes, illustrious one," I replied, respectfully, "we regard that as a good
defense."
"Well," said he slowly, but with extreme emphasis, "I'll be _Gook
swottled_!"
("_Gook_," I may explain, is the name of the Batrugian chief deity; but
for the verb "to swottle" the English tongue has no equivalent. It seems
to signify the deepest disapproval, and by a promise to be "_swottled_" a
Batrugian denotes acute astonishment.)
"Surely," I said, "so wise and learned a person as you cannot think it
just to punish with death one who does not know right from wrong. The
gentleman who has just now renounced his future believed himself to have
been commanded to do what he did by a brass-headed cow and four bushels of
nightingales' eggs--powers to which he acknowledged a spiritual
allegiance. To have disobeyed would have been, from his point of view, an
infraction of a law higher than that of man."
"Honorable but erring stranger," replied the famous jurist, "if we
permitted the prisoner in a murder trial to urge such a consideration as
that--if our laws recognized any other justification than that he believed
himself in peril of immediate death or great bodily injury--nearly all
assassins would make some such defense. They would plead insanity of some
kind and degree, and it would be almost impossible to establish their
guilt. Murder trials would be expensive and almost interminable, defiled
with perjury and sentiment. Juries would be deluded and confused, justice
baffled, and red-handed man-killers turned loose to repeat their crimes
and laugh at the law. Even as the law is, in a population of only one
hundred million we have had no fewer than three homicides in less than
twenty years! With such statutes and customs as yours we should have had
at least twice as many. Believe me, I know my people; they have not the
American respect for human life."
As blushing is deemed in Batrugia a sign of pride, I turned my back upon
the speaker--an act which, fortunately, signifies a desire to hear more.
"Law," he continued, "is for the good of the greatest number. Execution of
an actual lunatic now and then is not an evil to the community, nor, when
rightly considered, to the lunatic himself. He is better off when dead,
and society is profited by his removal. We are spared the cost of exposing
imposture, the humiliation of acquitting the guilty, the peril of their
freedom, the contagion of their evil example."
"In my country," I said, "we have a saying to the effect that it is better
that ninety-nine guilty escape than that one innocent be punished."
"It is better," said he, "for the ninety-nine guilty, but distinctly worse
for everybody else. Sir," he concluded with chilling austerity, "I infer
from their proverb that your countrymen are the most offensive blockheads
in existence."
By way of refutation I mentioned the English, indignantly withdrew from
the country and set sail for Gokeetle-guk, or, as we should translate the
name, Trustland.