The Lowest Heaven

AN ACCOUNT OF A VOYAGE FROM WORLD TO WORLD AGAIN, BY WAY OF THE MOON, 1726, IN THE COMMISSION OF GEORGIUS REX PRIMUS, MONARCH OF NORTHERN EUROPE AND LORD OF SELENIC TERRITORIES, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH. UNDERTAKEN BY CAPTAIN WM CHETWIN ABOARD THE COMETES GEORGIUS. ^{ADAM ROBERT}

My Commission

In all respects aiming at brevity, I here set down the account of the cruize I undertook to the Moon, afterwards returning again to this, our world, in the years of our Lord, 1726 & 27. There is (as is well known) littel enough in the Moon to justify the expence of crewing and leasing a vessel; save only that it is upon the Moon that the Patiens make their habitation, and as such some do go in hopes of obtaining or otherwise laying hands upon any and all devices or vessels of their design. Howsoever rarely this is achiev’d, and with what poor returns upon the market here is well known, for perhaps one in every four items brought back to our world is of any use to us at all, and the main amount of such chattel merely reproduces what is already in the possession of mankind, where such novelties most often prove impossible for the wits of men to decipher.

So was I sworn by the First Lord Commissioner, the Earl of Berkeley Viscount Dursley, during the early days of the late war between Spain and Peru; for at time of war was the urge to uncover such Arms as may be secreted amongst the machinery of the Patiens, tho’ never yet accomplished. It is known now (forall that I was bound with oaths of secrecy at that time) that His Majesty’s Own Ambassadors were treating with Brasilia and Peru, and that the Americas were eager to have a European allie in their struggle against the Spaniards. To that end, and to ease such discussion with proof of our intent in stopping Spain from locating any Weapons such as may or may not have been available in the Sky-lands. I was Commission’d to make my way thither, and funds were furnished upon the Stock of Sir George Oxenden, Bart, and Sir John Jennings, who became Certificated Gentleman with shares of 20/100 apiece in any prize we might win. But this manner of voyage is so different to admiralty work, and plunder so rare to come by, that their shares were in turn underwritten by His Majesty’s Office of Swedish Finance.

My Lords approach’d me, I do not doubt, on account of my experience going thither into the tallest hights, and having previously publish’d Round the World by Way of the Attenuat’d Hights, published at Mr. Crowther’s, 1717, I do commend this account to my present readers. As to the obtaining of the vessel, I shall here say littel; for it is well known that most of the Patien devices with useful function reside in private hands, for all that the Crown urges its Subjects to sell them to the State. There being in divers hands four devices for Communication over Vast distance, none of which I have ever seen; and upwards of two dozen devices for elevating vessels to the greatest hight; yet these latter have yet to be prov’d, for only when the Vessel so uplifted has left the thickness of Earthly ayr below it may it be in any fashion steer’d, such that the creation of craft that may Fly about the Skies of this world has not been accomplish’d. Yet the Chinese claim they have modify’d such a Vessel, as we may very well expect it shoud be possible to do; or else (as in the present wars) Craft must fly up to the Attenuat’d Hights in order to come back down again in another place. There was but one device found useful for applying Heat via a wand of some metallick quality, and it the only Patiens-ware ever seiz’d by the Crown, upon the Royal Warrant, and taken to the Royal Armouries where its mysteries were not exhum’d and (as I heard) it was spoyl’d by those who examin’d it and now rests mere junk.

At any rate, the Guild that attends to building and caulking the Vessels, and the Guild that has possession of the Propulse, and the Guild that attends to Ayr, and the Guild that possesses the Royal Patent for provisioning such cruizes, all stand off from all, such that bringing together a crew is a tiresome business. It might benefit the Commonwealth of all Northward European peoples, under His Gracious Majesty’s rule, were they but encouraged to allign their commerce. On this occasion it requir’d a threeweek’s tedious use of my time to provision and construct the Vessel, which I named the Cometes Georgius; most of which labour was in having my men running from office to office along the Dover roads. At fine, the Vessel was readied: it being if pyramidic shape the better to cleave through the ayr close to our world; builded of alternate layers of wood, well caulked with plastick’d tarr, and sheets of the new India-rubber, to preserve the atmosphear within. A number of balons of ayr must be carried thither, each twice the size of the Vessel itself; and I know that the Americans, when they ascend, begin the cruize by heating the ayr within and so are lifted on the first stage, although the Propulse-device of the Patiens must soon be engag’d. We had no such unnecessary complexness about our Voyaging, and the balon lay alongside us, ty’d with cord to the base and link’d via a spiggot-tube. The ayr being so precious a commodity limits the size of the crew; one man per Guild and myself being four in all; or else the number of balons tow’d behind must needs become troublesome. Dobrée took twenty with him on his supraplanetary, hoping to replenish them at journey’s end, but was compell’d to return on the same supply and thereby perished the majority of his crew. It has been found, since then, that the seeding the interior with green vegetation goes some way toward avoiding the parching of the lungs, tho’ Dobrée knew nothing of that. My crew was roster’d as follows:

As for the Propulse itself, it is a manner of seven-tine starr’d structure, of weight equivalent to a small cannon but spread thin, and constructed not of metal, altho’ it is of a substance akin to metal. As to the operation of this device, it is easy enough to deduce it, for all that the Guild pretends it is of passing secrecy and difficulty; for each of the tines may be operated independent, or in any combination, by the scraping of a blade or rod along the groove in each, as I have often observ’d the Pilota doing; and in truth it was only my respect for the terms of the Royal Guild Charter, and my own Commission, and not any insufficiency in my own skill, that prevented me kicking the Pilot (a fellow given to insolence of address when speaking to me, by name Kindermann, out of Prussia) off the Vessel. When in the lower ayr, all seven tines are needful at their greatest power, in order to keep the Vessel steady; and attempts to steer the course in amongst the turbulence below the clouds will like as not cause it to o’ertopple and crash. But above the lower ayr the matter of the atmosphear becoming so difuse, the tines may be individually activated to propell the vessel this way or that.

We set off first from Kent on a clear day, 12th June, 1726; and were delay’d at once, for the of our three balons one was indifferently ty’d to the Cometes, such that the cord broke and the balon fell away. This involv’d us in delay and expense, for, 1, the balon went into the English Canal and bobb’d, for all that I know, to France; and, 2, tho’ I instruct’d the pilot to descend immediately, yet he contin’d the ascent until he was perswaded cross-winds had become negligible, and only thence reverse the direction of travel; such that we set down again some thirty leagues away from our departing point. The Cometes having to be carried across the country, and a new balon obtained and fill’d and other sundry annoyances requir’d a further three days and near-enough £80 of extraneous expence. But we set off again, the 15th June, and had no further difficulty in quitting the Earth’s thicker ayr altogether. The experience of this flight is not unpleasing, for the motion in the lower ayr being slow’d by the need to drag our balons behind us, is neither precipitous nor startling; yet in the upper ayr the lack of obstruction to our passage means that we shoot faster and faster, as a Cannon-bullet. It is a three-night journey to reach the Moon, and the days in that place are night in all respects. Some take candles with them, but I prefer to preserve our supply of breathable and subsist on such sunlight as the portholes inmit. The road is clear; for altho’ others have affirmed the existence of rubble and other obstacles in the way, causing annoyance and worse to the fabrick of any vessel, I have not found it so. The most remarkable thing at first is that the people swim and and turn like fish in a tank, by whatsoever strange Magnetick or Nimphidic power of the high sky. Yet Custom works so strongly upon us that tho’ we find ourselves amaz’d at the first, yet soon we become us’d and even bored with the facility.

The higher sky is so capacious, and the passage rapid, it is near impossible to observe whate’er other Vessels are traversing the distance between Earth and the Moon; although I am perswaded that the Chinese and the Peruvians both make more frequent cruizes thither and back than is generally suppos’d. For the Peruvian Cristal House must be supply’d with ayr, that cannot be found except upon the Earth. And whilst the means by which the Patiens’s devices are fuell’d or power’d or do otherwise draw their means of subsistence is entirely unknown, we are in no ways restrict’d by the need to supply such fuel, or to any degree incommoded from making as many voyages as we chuse; and it is only the necessity of bringing along ayr, water and victuals for the crew that acts as any restriction upon travelling as far and often as we might wish. I do believe the Americans ply the distance on a continual round, such that their Cristal House lose nothing in the cleanness of its atmosphear, and afterwards had occasion to confirm.

The Moon appears at first in the porthole no larger than it does from the ground upon our own Mundus; and a full day may pass before any increase in dimension be observ’d; but by the third day it is large enough to make out the structures upon it, and by the fifth it fills the view. Here the Pilot reverses the action of the Propulse, which caus’d the fabrick of the Cometes to tremble and groan like to fly apart, and occasion’d us all grave anxiety; and also our balons, from being dragged behind, did swallow around us, and obstruct’d our vision from portholes, which was by no means conducive to good navigation. But the celerity of passage must be quench’d; and after a ten-minute of complaining it settled again. By wagging the Vessel from side to side, Kindermann clear’d one porthole, and from this was looked out upon the Selenic landscape.

There being no ayr in that place, nothing prevents a craft with access to a Patiens’ device from moving about the sky at leisure, and we made a road for ourselves according to my instructions, passing over a number of large Crateric and Ridged features. The face of the Moon being familiar to all, and the location of all structures well-mapp’d, there was no difficulty in navigating over the surface of it. Shortly thereafter we pass’d over one of the habitations of the Patiens, not far from the Crater nam’d Blenheim by us, but Sancta Maria by other nations. We could see the spread of structures, radiating out from a hub, and lit at all points by those same ever-burning lanterns two samples of which have fall’n into the hands of the Turques, as I hear it. We all clustered about the porthole and looked down to see the Patiens themselves; from the prospect of altitude reduc’d even more to insectile seeming, hurrying in and out of their houses on their incomprehensible tasks. They paid us no heed, save only one of their aerial machines, or as some assert their birds (though it looks unlike any bird) that flew up and about us and then flew away.

Soon we approach’d the Cristal House of the Peruvians; for it is but a roof’d-over Crater three leagues S.S.W of the Great Copernick Crater that is familiar to any who have cast their eye upon the Moon. My thought was: should the Spaniards ever obtain a Propulse and build a Vessel, it would present them no challenge at all to find the House and break its roof, whereby all its ayr would be lost and the crops within kill’d. We made a pass low over the structure, and admir’d its shine in the unhaz’d sunlight very much; and once passed we saw men at work on the other side of the glass tending their vegetation; and we saw also the pier, or pavement, construct’d alongside for the reception of their own ships. Shadows upon the Moon are drawn tight as draughtsman’s lines, and very stark and clear; and the light is such as not like to be forgotten. And here I instructed the pilot to set the Cometes down. It landed with some commotion, for we missed the pavement, and landed on the desart soil nearby; and moreover the landing near tipped us aside, at the which I was wrathful with Kindermann. Shortly thereafter we pass’d over one of the habitations of the Patiens Kindermann the while spoke to me very insolent, and assur’d me he had power to blacklist me from further trade with his Guild, if I thought to treat him as a slave or remitted the slightest courteous usage. I reminded him of the great sums I had defray’d, and bade him only do his job. At this Cano and Mulville took the Pilot’s side, and we endur’d an ill mood in that craft whilst awaiting the Pervuians.

They came at last, after the dust had settled; and in truth it sifted but slowly to the ground; for weight on the Moon is less than on our world. For it is the efficacy of the various worlds to cast their charm upon men in divers ways; such that to stand upon 1 planet is to be made from stone, and upon another into cork. It is accordingly a different matter entire to stand upon the Moon as it is upon the Earth; in the former place the substance of that world causeth the body to become buoyant almost to the current of floating into the ayr; yet to return again to the Earth is to become heavy again, with a sense of sinkage of body and spirit both. As to how this effect is form’d, opinion is divided, some adhering to the French school of Des Cart, some to the English of Viscount Coldstream and some the German of Neuton. Some affirm (and I do myself believe) that the Earth, as the site of the sin of Adam, was endued with weightiness as a portion of its especial curse; and that other planets surrounding the sun being free of such taint are all lighter worlds; as we can see of Jupitter, the most large; for that none have yet voyaged thither, yet it is plain that to look through a Prospective glass is to see a world, as the poet says,

From which we may deduce that Jupitter is a vaprous world, such as could not be if its weight were consummate with its great size (as Neuton affirms), or those vapours would be drawn out of the sky to fall as rain and the obscurant clouds would clear away, as may be observ’d in the case the Earth.

Concerning the Patien race

As to whether the Patien specie have the knowledge to explain this anomalous circumstance I do not know, and some affirm they lack all knowledge themselves, and are mere clowns, or puppets, of some greater power. For (it is said by some) it may be that the Patien are not the inventors of the devices and vessels we call theirs, but only receiv’d them as gifts from a Higher race—or pilfer’d them from thence—much as we have come by such devices as are ours. Certain the Patien have not that force about their affaires such as we might think fitting for great inventors, and on the contrary seem distrait and eccentric; for all remarck how great a chance they daily miss to subdue the whole world with their advantages over us.

But I disbelieve this story myself, for if the Patien are not the progenitors of their machines, but took them from another race, then where is this race? Why have they permitted their advances to be stol’n? Why come they not hither to retrieve it? And as to the Patien claim, that they have come hither from the Pole star, which is Polaris; I believe this may be after the manner of some jest or riddle of their own; for it has been assiduously ascertained by the Chevalier de Mouhy and others that the fix’d stars are too distant for such voyaging. A Cannon-Bullet shot from the Earth must require 26 years in passing from hence to the Sun, and with the same Velocity wherewith it was discharged, it would require, in order to arrive at the fix’d Stars almost Seven hundred thousand Years: and a Ship that can sail 50 miles in a Day and a Night, will require 30,430,400 Years. As to the suppos’d Immortality of the Patien, I do not believe; for I have seen old ones as well as young, and seen that when cut they bleed, tho’ it is a curious form of blood, coloured like as milk or buttermilk; and besides, to advert Immortality to any Being not explicitly Divine is a blasphemous derogation of God’s Will in this Univers. It does less violence to credulity to believe the Patien come from some other world in orbit of the Sun, Mars as some say; which if Dobrée is to be believ’d (and there is much that is hard to credit in his Voyage á le Monde Martien) is near as desart and ayrless as the Moon herself. Some will say that Dobrée reported seeing none of the Patien race upon Mars in his time there; to which I reply, 1, that it being a world entire, it ought not offend our reason to believe that some parts are more inhabited than others, for if a visitor came to our world he might as well stop in the Afric desart and declare the whole globe void of population, as make any such categorical statement regarding Mars; and, 2, that Dobrée so poorly provision’d for his voyage, especially in consideration of ayr, but water also, that his crew, all but one, perish’d on the return, and both he and Valtat were driven from their wits with the suffering of it, such that I doubt a court of law in London would accept his testimony as gospel in any tryal or deposition. But this and other pedantic questioning may best be left for future expeditions to that Scarlet world to determine.

What else can be said of the Patiens is that cold incommodes them not at all, nor heat, nor thinness of ayr; but as to how their boddies are constituted, with what Juices their Veins are supply’d, and what Sense they are capable of, we can but say that their Life is other than Ours. They exist according to an other logick of life, and distribute their Governance according to a different oeconomy entire, which I am perswaded after all my dealings with them.

The Cristal House

I shall give a brief account of the Cristal House maintained upon the moon at the pleasure of His Catholick Majesty. It is a very spacious demense, and easy to traverse, for the lightness of the boddy under Lunar influence permits great leaps and gallops. The smell of the dust, there, is offensive, and reeks like gunpowder; although I was assur’d by those dwelling there it is not combustible. This, where the Peruvians have widely water’d the lunar soil, first covering this with such roofage as expand about a quantity of 2 or 3 acre, making a soft black ouze they claim very quick in the cultivation of yams and fruit; and certain the vegetables grow to prodigious sizes, much priz’d for this on the home market. But the expence of maintaining such an establishment is hardly to be defray’d by such market-gardening. I spoke to one who said that, the vegetation breath’d such virtue into the ayr that it would render needless the importation of breathable vapour from the Earth, were it not that the lunar nights grow so cold, and last fully a fortnight long, that the inhabitants of that house are oblig’d to light fires all about to prevent the crops parching with the freeze, and these flames do devour the air that would otherwise be available for the breathing of the inhabitants. But the prestige of maintaining their establishment is great, and the hope, although it is but rarely fulfill’d, of chancing upon discarded ordnance of the Patiens race, comprize sufficient reason for the difficulty of the undertaking.

We were receiv’d cordially by the Peruvians, who came up to the very double door of the Cometes in one of their contrivances for moving about the Selenic surface; which is a great globe seal’d rubber and leather, fill’d with ayr, such that one man or several may roll it over the ground by running at the curv’d wall. A sac can be inflated and section’d away, through which egress and exit is possible; and Kindermann, Moulville and I wriggl’d with some loss of dignity into this device, leaving only Cano behind to attend to the Cometes. Inside the ball all must shift, and none may be a passenger, or they would be rollt about with the motion of the sphear, so I ran like a rat in a wheel with the others, and so we made it into the Cristal House.

Here we were handsomely received by the Lord of the farm, Don Frederico de Vouert, and we toasted the health of our respective kings, His Boreal Majesty and His Catholick Majesty, and ate steaks cuts from the yams grown therein which were very tasty, and ate jerked beef also. My Spanish and Portugueze being equally indifferent, and Don Frederico not speaking French (tho’ I expected it of him) we convers’d tolerably well in Lattin, and so grew cordial gabbling together like novitiate priests. I presented my Commission to Don Frederico, and render’d it into terms he might understand, and we discuss’d the treaty of amity between our two great empires, which news was a great surpize and joy to him; for the only commerce he has with the Earth comes with the cargoes of ayr and victuals, which being merchanters are not trusted to carry epistles containing matters of State. We talk’d for a time concerning the Patiens, but tho’ he lived a matter of leagues from one of their settlements, yet he had nothing to report on them that I had not heard before. For the truth is, these creatures remain as much a mystery to us as they did when first they appear’d amongst us, forty years since.

I was honour’d with a tour of the whole House, and admir’d especially the grid of crysytal panes and wrought-iron support that made up the structure. Don Frederico show’d me two suits, moulded and fashion’d most cunningly of indiarubber, with a helmet of iron and a visor of glass, for a man to wear if he ventur’d out upon the Moonic surface. He had worn one himself on divers occasions, he reported; as had his men. But, he said, it was but a poor shift; for on stepping outside the ayr inside the suit puffed and hardened, such that it became near impossible to move the limbs, and perambulation became a matter of great arduosity. We retir’d to the Don’s private quarters, and continu’d diplomatick exchange over glasses of Selenic brandie, most agreeably flavoursome.

Said he: the union of our two empires will put an short end to the ambitions of Spain, whose history in the Americas had poysoned the people against them even before the arrival of the Patiens.

To which I replied that, his Boreal Majesty King George wish’d for nothing more heartily than mondial peace, and prosperity for us all. But was he sure, as common report claim’d, that the Spaniards had lost all the Propulse devices they had ever had?

To which he replied that he believ’d so; that they only had ever had two, and that one had been taken from them by the Brasilian navy, and they themselves have destroy’d the other in the furnace for fear it would fall into the hands of the Turques. And that he, for one, was glad of it; for he was in continual anxiety as to the fragility of his roof, and the ease with which a determin’d enemy could lay waste to the whole Casa Crystall. In the light of what transpir’d, his words were prophetic as Jeremiah.

Are you much bother’d with the Patien, in this place? I enquir’d of him. To which he made answer, not much; that they kept themselves to themselves, tho’ they watch’d their goings & comings not without anxiety, for (he said) they are capricious, and swarm from task to task, and follow not great plan, It is my belief we have acquir’d their devices only thro’ their carelessness, and should they become aware of us it would be of a sudden, and then they would swarm upon us and devour us verily as locusts do.

But we are better able to defend ourselves, I observ’d, because we have acquir’d their devices. And with this he was in agreement.

He then teaz’d me, the brandie working visibly in his manner, that tho’ King George permitt’d the world to believe he had but four Propulse devices, yet the rumours were he had six.

I of course refus’d to discuss such Statecraft, tho’ in joviall manner enough; and we parted on good terms. But one of the Cristal House’s men, leading me below to quarters, ask’d whether we thought it politick to employ a Bavarian in our crew. I inform’d him that Pilot Kindermann was from Northern Prussia, and serv’d in the Baltic navy a time; but this Peruvian (whose name, he said, was Hermann) assur’d me he that he not only spoke tolerable German, but knew a Bavarian accent from a Prussian. I, being somewhat incommoded with liquor, decided to leave any further inquiry to the morn. This, I now regret.

I was oblig’d to sleep in a chamber cut from cold Selenic rock, below the floor of the crater, with my two crewmen; such spaces being but hard-worked and the rock all granite, so they had as yet fashioned but a few. Nor did I enjoy a long sleep, for some hours I was awoken by the sound of some thunder and catarwawling from above. And by the time I had rows’d myself fully, and dressed, and hurry’d above, we found a scene of commotion.

One of the panes of cristal having broke, or been shatter’d, a quantity of ayr had fled into the Selenic sky; and tho’ the pane had been soon restor’d—for the Pervuians are practised at repair, as well they might be given that their very life depends upon it, yet Don Frederico was gravely concern’d at his supply of breathable. How could it come that your cristal is broke? I asked of him. To which he replied that meteors sometimes fell from the heavens, but that he did not put aside the possibility of treachery from within, since the fragments of cristal would on either occasion be thrown outside by the uncompressing wind of ayr leaving the House. I ask’d after the resupply of his ayr, and he put upon himself a sober face and said that there was a week more before any new balons might be expected; and that the Selenic night began in three days. You can hardly credit, Señor Ingles, how quick, he said, the cold comes, and how unsupportable it be without a fire be lit. Yet fire would consume his breathable, and so he declar’d they must ready for the cold. According to his own report the ayr itself turns icy, and can only be made vapour by being heated in a great copper cauldron they keep for that purpose.

I of course took my leave of them; for tho’ he pressed his continued hospitality upon us, yet he had no need of three subjects of King George breathing up his ayr. Yet before we could pass out there was more anxiety, for one of Don Frederico’s men was found smitted and prone, by the exit. Salts and liquor reviv’d him, yet how he came to have been laid out he could not say; only that he had heard something amongst the foliage of the plantation, and had receiv’d a pate-blow when he look’d into it, from whom he knew not. It seem’d to me (yet am I no surgeon) that he had been struck across the forehead by a sabre, for the red groove ran from eye to hairline.

I felt some anxiety on account of our departure seeming suspicious, giv’n this wicked development; yet the preciousness of ayr was a consideration not to be gainsaid, and the fellow look’d fair to recover, and after many assurances of our amity and concern we three clamber’d ungainly into the sphear, with one of Don Frederico’s men. For after delivering us to the Cometes Georgius, there must be one fellow yet remaining to roll the sphear back to the Cristal House.

What transpir’d with Kindermann

Don Frederico bade us farewell, and made us the gift of one of his indiarubber suits; although disavow’d his own generosity, and claiming it worse than useless, yet was I glad to have it. We rolled the sphear with ease along the paved road, and with difficulty among the dusty portion of our way. But at last we return’d to the Cometes Georgius, and though I hurry’d Moulville and Kindermann before me, yet did Kindermann loiter back; and so contriv’d it that he was the last, save only Don Frederico’s man, to leave the sphear. Then, turning before the seal was broke, he withdrew from his shirt a pistol, and began gabbling something in Spanish. I order’d him to put up his Arms, but he shriek’d, and discharg’d the gunn; and I am very sorry to say that Don Frederico’s man receiv’d a bullet in his ribs; for he fell back with terrible rapidity and his blood leapt so far and high to spatter the sides of sphear it look’d as tho’ it had come to life and been gifted with powr’s of flight.

Cano, the coward, hid his head under his arms; but Moulville wrangled with the Pilot, attempting to get his firearm from him, but there was a terrifick discharge, and smoak in gouts, and Moulville fell away holding his estomach. He was not kill’d, but in great pain, and I held him as well as I could, though his gore soak’d hot into my own shirt and trowsers. Kindermann was in a state of the greatest agitation at these two sanguine offences, and whoop’d like a cockerel, brandishing his gun and jabbering in incomprehensible fashion. I, the while, berated him with great vehemence, that he was a traitor to His Majesty and the basest of villains. But, he told me, amongst a deal of matter I could not follow very clearly, that George was no Majesty of his, that he was a subject of His Catholick Majesty Charles of Spain. And, as it later transpir’d, Don Frederico’s other man had been right; for he was no Prussian, but a born and rais’d Bavariaman, who has secretly and long espous’d the Cisalpine Kingdom, who have thrown their lot, howsoever foolishly, with the Mediterranean Alliance, all of whom recognize none but the Spain king as their Lord.

He turn’d his attention to sealing the door with the sphear, and now it was plain his intent was nothing less than stealing the Cometes Georgius and delivering it to his masters, with what consequence for the war who can say? But whilst occupied in this business he dar’d not set down his pistol, and in fact discharg’d it a third time. I do not believe he intended this latter shot, for he yell’d with surprise; but the bullet passed through the open door and pricked the fabrick of the sphear. Conditions lunarian are such that this pinhole ripped precipitously into a great gash; and my ears fill’d with roaring, like the surf of some vasty invisible sea, and all the matter inside the vessel flew about in a whirl. In the noyse the door was at last clos’d, tho’ I cannot say whether Cano or Kindermann achiev’d it; and we were left panting.

Kindermann held his pistol upon us, and cough’d fit to burst his lung. But Cano was in too great a terror to affect anything, and Moulville was shifting colour in his face blue and darker. Await the moment! Kindermann cry’d, and instruct’d me to peep through the hole. My head being convenient beside a porthole I did as he said; but my back was also against the spigot below, which led to our own balon of ayr, and this I kept clos’d.

The sight thro’ the porthole was one to hurt the heart. For it was now apparent that Kindermann has secret’d a fuz’d barrel or device about the Cristal House, and had lit the fuze as we went. I doubt not (tho’ he did not confirm such from his own lips) that the man struck on the forehead was Kindermann’s doing; and that he had been discover’d laying this trap and shot the fellow, the ball grazing his brow and caroming away to break a pane in the cristal roof. The fellow was lucky not to have his skull broke, and to have surviv’d the encounter; yet unlucky in what thereafter followed. For I saw the explosion burst the cristal roof; and throw a great mass of debris into the black Selenic sky. The force with which this detonation smote the House is not to be express’d, no more than the agility with which glitterish shards of shatter’d cristal flew in every direction; but the most puzzling part of all was the Perfect Silence in which it all occur’d.

I called Kindermann Madman and Devil and Lunar-Fawkes to his face, but he agitation was no lessen’d by the successful accomplishment of this wicked plot. ‘We shall lay the blame for this at the door of the Patiens,’ he declar’d; and bestirr’d him to the Propulse. I doubted not that he would now pilot the Cometes to Spain, and indeed he betook us all into the lunaric sky with celerity. But rather than departing the Moon straight, instead we overflew the wrecked site of the Peruvian house. I saw the dead boddies of some, their names I know not and I know not whether Don Frederico was among them; but there they lay blackn’d and sprawled in the dust, their eyes black as coals. For the ayr at such a hight, as is well known, is so severe that only to step out of door is to cause the skin to bruise as if from a blow. I have spoke with men who have lost eyes and fingers to the tugg of the lunar ayr, which in fact is no ayr at all. Yet also there are men, with whom I have conversed, who swear that, as with the at the top of mountains, it is merely a matter of accustomizing the mouth to the rarity; and schoolemen say that this is the ayr the angels themselves do breathe. Certain, the Patien take no harm from it, and prefer it to the thicker medium, altho they are not incapacitated by the thickest ayr, as I have myself seen, much as pearl divers are at ease at differing depths of water. (And I have read in Nieuwentyt, and do concurr with him, that what we call Water and what we call Ayr are in truth but the same material according to differing degrees to tenuousness, which can plainly be seen in that ayr frequent distils into rain and seeks again to fall).

Kindermann divided his attentions between holding his pistol upon us, and steering the craft towards the Tranquil Sea; which destination he announced to all of us in that vessel. The landscape of the Moon below is grey to a degree hardly to be believ’d; where the sunlight is hard upon it a silver and in patches quicksilver hue may be seen; but elsewhere it is dreary leaden and poyson’d blue in colour. I order’d cowering Cano to fetch some water for Moulville, altho’ I had littel hope for his survival; and when Cano had oblig’d me, trembling, he return’d to his corner.

There is a Patien’s camp at the Tranquil Sea, I observ’d.

There is, he replied. And thither we shall do to make what mischief we may, before returning to the Earth and the court of King Charles of Spain. When I press’d him as to his reasons, he expatiated, growing increasing breathless as he went on. That the Patiens were the enemy, common to all mankind; and that the war between King Charles and his enemies was a tragickal distraction; that mankind must unite against the common threat before it was too late.

I rebuk’d him for his folly, hoping in truth only to hurry him along with speaking, for I could feel in the strictness of my own throat the shortest way the air was going, and I kept the spigot tight under my right hand, behind my small-back, and in no wise did circulate fresher air with that handle.

Said I, if the Patien creatures had such nefarious intention, then why had they not acted sooner?

Said Kindermann, that we only suppos’d the Patien superior to us; and in fact their numbers being so small, and the main part of their devices and ordnance mere junk, as a hundred speculators have discover’d, their odds of overcoming so large and populous a world as Earth were long. To this end, Kindermann insisted, they were fomenting war between the nations of the globe, and would wait until we had spent our force upon one another, and the seas of the world ran purple with our blood, before moving upon us and enslaving those who survived.

It seem’d to me that, as the Poet says, tho’ this was folly, yet was some wisdom in it. For the Patien do act most peculiar, eccentric to common sense; and it is true both that we outnumber they, and that they are as sensible to hurt and corporeal death as we. But still I could not credit they would permit us to lay our hands upon their devices, without some attempt to restore them to themselves, if their intent were hostile.

But why, Kindermann press’d me, have they come hither at all?

As to that, I reply’d (though all the time judging my moment) it was idle to speculate, since we lack’d all evidential circumstance. And whist the plan of amity amongst all nations was both noble and prudent, it would be more directly accomplish’d by Charles of Spain suing for peace than in struggling on with a battel beyond his powers to win.

At this Kindermann began a pompous speech, and thereby elaborated a precarious stratagem; that we would steal ordnance from the Patien camp on the Tranquil Sea, and return heroes to Spain; that the blame for the destruction of the Casa Cristala would be thrown on the Patiens, and humanity unite in outrage against these alien creatures, aided by the fact that His Catholick Majesty would be newly arm’d with a Propulse (plus whatsoever else we obtain’d from our current raid). That a new alliance of all the world’s people would unite to return to the Moon and vanquish the Patien. They ly’d, he repeated, by way of refrain or slogan, when they claim’d to have come from the Star Sirius (such a provenance being a patent impossibility); what else have they ly’d about?

I judged my moment to have come. Moulville, I am sorry to say, had stopp’d breathing some minutes previous; and as I hope to stand straight before CHRIST after my last day so I do swear I intended no disrespect to that brave fellow in how I used him. But needs must when the Devil drives us, as the proverb goes &c., and the fate of nations was weigh’d in the balance, against only my meager purposiveness. So I lifted him (easy to do, since the Selenic charm upon his corpus had rendered it littel more than a small Child’s in weight) and toss’d him at Kindermann.

This naturally surpriz’d the Pilot, for he did not expect to have a human adult thrown as one might throw an apple at a beggar. The collision startl’d him from his position and press’d him against the wall, tho’ he took no serious hurt. Luck did not wait upon me, however; for I hop’d to rush him and wrangle him down (for tho’ he was younger and larger than I, yet the thinness of the ayr must incommode him) before he could discharge his pistol; but I found my limbs ineager and rebellious to my commands, and only with great weariness could I move across the floor towards him. I know not how to excuse my sluggishness in prosecuting my attack, save only that the thinness of ayr may have debilitated me more than I knew.

My heart lollop’d, if truth be told, when I saw Kindermann aym his pistol direct in at my face. A moment stood between me and death; but then the trigger tripp’d the hammer, and the weapon did not discharge. For fire, even when bundl’d so small as a Spark, needs ayr, and there was an insufficiency thereof in that place, then.

I am sorry to say my grappling with the Pilot was but a poor fistfight; and I panted and strain’d for ayr like any asthmatick. Kindermann threw me off, and I flew further than I thought to. But Cano recover’d his courage (and perhaps it was only that the pistol had affright’d him, and it being remov’d from consideration his courage return’d) and joy’nd the struggle. To make brief, tho’ Kindermann clubb’d him with the buttress end of his gun, yet did Cano overwhelm him; and tho’ the Pilot brought up a knife, with which he certainly intended to do great hurt to us both, in the struggle he sheath’d it again in his own side, and fell away yelping like a puppy. Alas that he fell near the Propulse, for in his grief and hurt, and the bitterness of defeat, the demon of Suicide seiz’d him and he grasp’d the device; and plung’d the Cometes straight at the ground. This happen’d so quick, indeed, that I could do naught to ameliorate our flight, and fell struck my head painfully against the wall, hard enough to loose a stream of blood. And almost at once, it seemed, we were dashed upon the Selenic ground.

Mere chance dictat’d the site of our collision, and it so happen’d that GOD threw a handful of dust under our tiller, or we would have been broke open and chok’d to death in moments. But though we surviv’d the first impact, yet the Vessel bounc’d and leapt back in the air, and came down again athwart a ridge-peak. The fabrick of the walls gave, at this blow, somewhat, and air hiss’d loudly. We tumbl’d down the far side, and roll’d the compleat circumference of the Vessel thrice, before we came to rest on the plain. But though this brought cessation to our fall, yet it damag’d the hull further, and the whole Cometes groan’d pitifully, and shook and jerk’d with the discharge of its air into the Lunar night like a live thing. I, by chance, had fall’n near the spigot, and somehow gather’d myself to turn this enough to let the air flow; and in truth there was now such a breeze blowing, that the air was suck’d hard from the balon and blown out upon the Moon. But I breath’d easier, and brought Cano to the spigot also, for he was turning blue. So we refresh’d our lungs, and being daz’d with the blow to my head and somewhat shaken out of comfort by the crash, I did not for a time realize that the whole balon was deflating at a accelerated rate. Only when it ran dry—many days’ supply of breathable, gone in a few minutes—did I realize our danger.

We had but one other full balon, and before I released the spigot on that I order’d Cano to assist me in making such repairs as we could to the breaches in our hull. This was no easy matter. Three or four we found soon, and they patch’d them as best we could; but the worst was the corner, which was stov’d in quite. Kindermann’s body was here, and the draught of air had suck’d his body half outside, such that tho’ we pull’d him back in (and we were gagging and coughing on the thinness of ayr) his face was white with frost, and strands of his beard broke away like icicles, and his eyes so blackened it look’d as though they were fill’d with black ink. So perish’d this traitor, tho’ it was pitiful to see him in such a state for all that.

By stuffing his body back into the breach and cramming around it with what came to hand we in some measure seal’d our breach; and I was compell’d to open the second spigot or we would both have choak’d to death. But our situation, in honesty, was parlous; for we were marooned on the Moon; and it was hard to see how we should shift ourselves, or survive another twenty-four hours.

Our attempt’d flight

We arrang’d the interior of the Cometes into as good an Order as we could, and laid out Purser Moulville as best we could, with respect for his sacrifice and his bravery in life; and as Captain I said a prayer for his soul. To hold a hand near Kindermann’s boddy was to feel a draught of air, which stood in proof of the insufficiency of the seal at that place where the fabrick of the Vessel was breach’d. This was my severest anxiety; for it would devour our ayr more quickly than we could afford; and swiftly I revolv’d the possibilities before us. In short, words cannot express the wretched condition we were in, or the surprize we were under of being so unfortunately wreck’d at a place more distant than the furthest South Sea island.

I discuss’d with Cano what options lay before us; they being, 1, that we attempt flight, and the Navigation by means of the Propulse, with the hope that the Cometes could be caulk’d or otherwise made tight sufficient to the journey (except that it was many days flight, and that it was most uncertain whether moving the wreck might not reveal greater damage to the Fabrick of the whole); or, 2, one or other of us strike out wearing the indiarubber suit in the hope of finding succour; or, 3, we abided where we were in the hope of rescue. As for this latter, it was surely a forlorn hope that any so much as knew of our predicament, and we might wait until the breathable was used up and so drown in dead air. My thoughts inclin’d to the second option, but from whom might we expect help, in this distant place, the Cristal House being destroy’d? Naught but the Patiens themselves. At this juncture Cano very gravely made a proposal to me, that tho’ he was a traitor, yet might Kindermann have had some merit in his suspicions of these beasts, and he declar’d himself disinclined to encounter them, calling them Very Devils and other such appellations. As for Kindermann, we both agreed, tho’ his treachery was wicked, he had been sufficiently recompens’d for it with ignominious death.

The result was that we agreed to try the first; and spent a goodly time doing what we might by way of sealing the Cometes after such fashion as was available to us, prior to attempting flight. The lesser leaks I was assur’d we have solv’d, yet I was unsure how severe the main rupture might be. Yet there was no knowing but in trying, so I took charge of the Propulse itself, and touched its grooves to the best of my abilities.

We launched upward in lively manner, but at once it became clear that the Cometes could not support itself with integrity; and though we lurch’d high yet the Vessel made a great rattling and trembling; and as I attempt’d to swerve, as birds do in flight, to position myself in the direction of Home, when with a mighty conniption shake the breach opened wider and the boddy of Kindermann flew from its place and was sucked hard away, to fall a Luciferian trajectory towards the black sands below. But this was disaster; and occasion’d a great typhoon in the cabbin, and all in a flutter with all objects within; and several other breaches open’d again. I reached the spigot to stop all our ayr evanishing away, but this only caus’d us to choak and gasp; and I knew death was close upon us. I attempted to bring the Cometes gently to the ground again, but my hand was heavy and I landed with a mighty crack against (as I later knew) a Crater ridge. Providence caus’d a spur of rock to thrust up through the breach, and a great swarm of dust flew about, clogging throat and eyes. Cano and I clustered around the spigot, and I parcell’d out littel gouts of ayr that we breath’d in greedily enough. The dust was settled by being drawn out through the cracks our hull. But, stirring ourselves, we block’d these as well as we could, and cramm’d much cargo around the rock. So it was we found ourselves in a worse situation than before.

What transpir’d with Cano

Cano, I am sorry to say, wept a great deal, and it was at this point I understood he had carried about his person a bronze bottle of gin, from which he had too often refresh’d himself. I am almost ashamed to relate this man’s behaviour in this skirmish; but as I think he deserves to be exposed, I shall divulge it in the manner I observ’d it. He, deciding that he would not die in that place, smote me cruelly about the head with a spanner, and as I was daz’d, neither relinquishing my senses wholly nor yet alert enough to counter his intent, I saw him put himself into the indiarubber suit. For we both knew that the suit was nothing without ayr, and the only supply of this latter was the one balon that remain’d to us. By the time he had fitted himself into the suit I was rouz’d somewhat from my half-stupor, but not in time to stop him stepping out through the door. And then I could do no other than watch from the porthole-window as Cano made his way about. He went to the exterior of the spigot, where the pipe fed ayr thro’, and his intent was not less than to disattach it to supply his own suit, thereby extinguishing my life. But, in brief, he achiev’d not this bad plan, and tho’ he expir’d on the black and purple sands, there. For as Don Frederico had said, the suit puff’d up like a pig’s bladder until it was so rigid with cold that he could move not arms nor legs. He danc’d and leapt like a water-boatman, his limbs straight out, but then he tripped over a broad, black rock, shap’d like an umbrella buried in the sand, and fell. The ayr inside his suit was soon breath’d up, and tho’ he twitched and struggl’d, yet could he not regain his footing. Shortly he mov’d no more, and so he pass’d from our mortall realm. I said a prayer for his Spirit, and reflect’d on how he might have acquitted himself had not drink possess’d his soul. Then I pray’d some more, for guidance, in that desolate place.

There was nothing but a choaking death to be expected of staying in that location, but I could see littel hope of egress. And though the indiarubber-suit had serv’d Cano but ill, yet I considerd how it might be possible to move, in howsoever waddling a fashion. But the suit was outside, and there was but one.

For two days (or so far as I could calculate the time, in that place, where the sun shrank only very slowly to the horizon) I made no attempt to remove myself; for I reason’d (howsoever ill my reason seems in hindsight) that it could be the Cristal House was not altogether destroy’d, and that they might come about the sky in their own vessel to search for me. But it was delusive. And then I saw that the sun, if slow, was setting, and soon the night would come when my ayr would freeze and I finally die. Thinking of my Commission, and my duty, I could not think to leave the Propulse there; but though I made laborious way towards unfixing it, it was too heavy and well-set for one man to move. And at last I resolv’d: to die in the attempt at escape rather than die a passive death inside the Cometes.

The cold was growing apace; but the difficulties served to fix them more firmly in my resolution. In short, I swaddl’d myself about with such woollens and cloaths as we were supply’d with: leather gloves with woollen ones above (the which I may thank for the fact that I did not altogether lose my fingers), and silk handshoes for the feet; and for my head, about which I was in truth most concern’d, I fashion’d a sack of leather, and ty’d it about with a cord. The greatest inconvenience of this was that I could not see; but I spent long enough committing the scene without to my memory. Finally there was nothing but a short prayer and my hard-bearting heart, and I stepped from the ruin’d vessel.

The 1st thing that occur’d, which both surpriz’d and alarm’d me, was that the ayr inside my hood all fled away, and the fabric of the leather cleav’d close about my face. I had taken a dozen great breaths before my exit, but this plac’d me moments from an asphixiant death. The 2nd was my notice of the great cold, severer even than the Arctic chill I knew in my Ocean Voyage under the command of Sir William Camell in 1711. I made to feel my way, blind, about the exterior of the Vessel; but my hands and fingers were so benumbd and in such sudden pain, that I could barely feel. Worse were my feet, for the silk kept back the ayr not at all, and the surgeon who later cut away my toes declar’d me lucky not to have lost the feet themselves. And the chill ran up and down my whole boddy, such that my heart shrank to a chesnut inside my ribs. I had found it cold before, inside the Cometes, but now began to feel the extreamity of it. Still backward was no direction, and I stumbl’d round until by God’s Grace I laid my frost-chew’d hand upon the pipe of the ayr-balon, and tugging it free slipped the end in under my hood. Tho’ my lips slept with cold, and my mouth was all benumb’d, yet I managed to suck some ayr in my lungs, and rested for only a moment. But the sensation was deserting my limbs, and so (recalling the direction in which Cano lay) I stepped over to him. My foot found him, not I; and only the strange lightness of the Lunar world enabl’d me to haul his body back with my Left hand, holding the pipe with my Right. Without Providence I could not have regain’d the interior of the Cometes; and even then I could not close the double-door behind me without severing the ayr-pipe; so it was a poor clumsy & sightless fumbling that got Cano out of that suit and got me into it. How I managed it (to be truthful) I can hardly remember; save only that God’s Grace did not desert me, even in that place.

Ambulation through the Selenic lands

It was hardly warmer in the indiarubber suit than it had been before, and where warmth return’d to my hands and feet it was attended with stabbing pains and great discomfort. When I attach’d the hose to the valve in the suit neck it straightaway puff’d up and I could not move, or wriggle my way free. So I was compell’d to unconnect the hose and permit the ayr to hiss away, and only reconnect it after I had got outside. In all this I retayn’d the leather hood about my face, incapable in shear confusion to strip it away; but at last my wits return’d to the degree where I could think of this, and I discover’d that the arms of my suit were so Stiff that I could, internally, withdraw my own arms from them; and so slid the mask away.

Now, at least, I could see; and the sight was a desolate one. It is impossible that any thing living could subsist in so rigid and ayrless a climate; and that the Patiens can do so speaks to their monstrous strangeness. To stand still was to freeze, so I bestirr’d myself to motion, tho’ it hurt every bone in me to do so. The only ambulation possible in the suit, so stiff with ayr, was to waddle like a Penguin, to swivel left side and right side as I progressed. It was slow and cumbrous, but I nonetheless made my way up a long low slope of dark gray, and at the last I reach’d the eminence; and no Mountain Climber ever felt a greater joy than I at this petty achievement.

I look’d back and saw the smashed Cometes below me, marvelling that I had surviv’d for any time within it, so small and fractured-up it looked; and then I turn’d before me. The Earth, our World, stood in the black sky, of a proportion larger than the Moon stands in ours (which the greater dimensions of our world necessitates); but it was strange, and melancholy to look upward and consider that every fellow soul of my acquaintance was confin’d within that glaucous circle. Below me lay a great and dismal plain, black and grey as a coalface, but I had reason to hope it led to the Tranquil Sea; and there being no other shift for me, but to proceed thither and either treat with the Patien, or else pilfer from them the necessities to prolong my existence.

It would be needless to give the reader an account of the many difficulties I met with in making my slow way over the Tranquil Sea, dragging behind me a great balon of air, twenty times my hight, and sluggish and hard to move even in that lighten’d world. I was forc’d thrice to detour around obstacles in my way, and took some alarm, at the many patches in which obsidian flints or granite shards littered the way. But by God’s Grace I avoided hurt, and finally climbed another very dusty ridge, and look’d back to see the cicatrice tracks of my passage.

On the far side of this I saw various blocks, pale blue, silver-metallick and black; and saw that they had been scatter’d here by the Patien. Why they are so careless with their devices I know not, but of course I was laid under the most absolute necessity of behaving myself with the utmost circumspection and precaution. In the distance (which distances are strangely foreshorten’d in that place, either on account of the lack of ayr, or the strangeness of the weightless humour of the world) I saw larger blocks, and bethought them dwellings. With tedious progress, as I grew more and more tired, I struggl’d thereto. The glass porthole in my helmet kept fogging with my own breath, and I was oblig’d often to withdraw my hand inside the suit and smear it clear; and in truth it was hard to see very much through that space.

I passed 2 of the Patien creatures on the way, but they pay’d me no mind, scuttling away on their own mysterious business; and caring neither for the cold or the arylessness of that place, but going bare-fac’d and with their long limbs moving fast as a spider shifts its tentacles. At last I came to a block the size of good London Town House, and look’d about it for entrance, but found none. I was near dead with exhaustion and cold and gravely tempt’d to the sin of Despair; I thought to cut my suit and so end it, but had no knife. So I struck the wall of this block with my head, thinking (or perhaps not, for my thoughts were not so regular as that) to crack the glass in my porthole and so make an end; for the cold alone was more than I could bear. But again Providence spar’d me, even from my own wickedness, and a group of Patien came about me.

This may be the time to supply some description of those strange beings, although the memory of this encounter is so haz’d in my recollection that I might be recounting a dream, as much as passing on scientifick information. As many have noted they most resemble gigantick Spiders in overall appearance. They stand to the hight of a man, but their boddies are like unto a bullseal in length and breadth, and suspended horizontal in the air by their legs, of which most have six, tho’ some have eight and others are reported with ten (I have not myself seen these latter). Their faces, such as they have them, are monstrous ugly, more like to bats’ faces than anything else; and as I afterwards discover’d they smell very nauseously. Some are black with white lines, and some a blue-grey like the breast of a pigeon, which is to say curiously streak’d with all sorts of colours; still others have more ferocious manner, and scuttle fast in a manner like to alarm the bravest of men. Others appear more ruminative, altho’ it is hard to decipher how they think. To be sure what World it was in which their native habitation is found must be very different to ours.

I do not recall how I was transport’d inside, or (in truth) whether the interior in which I found myself was the same structure against which I had knock’d with my head. It was a hall, square, amounting to twenty yards of each wall; and white as milk. They stripped me from the indiarubber suit, and would have remov’d my inner cloathing, save only that I howl’d with pain when they attempted to peel the silk from my feet, in very agony at the hurt there, that they scurry’d away. This howling dislodg’d my voice, for my throat was (a surgeon afterward confirm’d) sore bruis’d by the cold and extreamity, and I could not speak. Several of the Patien attempt’d to speak to me, but in a language with which I was perfectly unacquaint’d. It sound’d gutterall, as the language of China, or Jappan. I was very cold, and shiver’d hard, and for a time individual Patiens would step alongside me and imitate my trembling, jerking and shaking upon their great spider-legs, perhaps only to mock me, or (as I now incline) to understand why I made such strange gestures in the first place. Afterwards the ayr warm’d, either because the Patien realiz’d my distress and its cause, or for unrelated reasons.

I was not fed, and grew hungry; tho’ I was brought water. They made no medical intervention upon me, and perhaps such work was beyond their knowledge. I know not how long pass’d when one came to me that did speak English, and tho’ its accent was strange and it pepper’d its speech with words from other languages, yet I understood some of it.

It ask’d of me how I came to be walking alone upon the Lunar plane, and I could only reply with a manner of hoarse scraping in my ruin’d throat. I made such motions as I could, of holding one hand as a page and moving the other as a pen, that it seem’d to understand. A littel later it produc’d a sheet of paper so tight-wove that it felt like cloath; and a stick that work’d as a pencil might, save only that it discharge’d ink. My writing was slow and the letters ill-form’d, for my hands were hurt by the ordeal I had endur’d, but I wrote as I could

Then I was left alone for a time, and could do nothing than consider the tone of the letter I had just written. I have it no longer about me, and quote it from memory, but I do assure you as to the tenor and burden. Eventually one of the Patien creatures return’d, with paper of its own, and a pen, moving its limbs according to the herkyjerky mode of their passage.

And here comes the strangest part of my adventures; for rather than write the letter itself (which, I am perswaded, it could easily have done, for tho’ it lack’d hands, yet its limbs-ends were supplied with claws and pincers equal to the task of holding a pencil), it put the pen in my hand, and then grasp’d my wrist, so moving my hands as to compell me to write the words. Stranger yet was its order of composition, for it started at the end, with the last letter of the last word, and wrote the whole backward with one smooth motion. I have deliver’d the letter to My Lords of the Admiralty, who graciously permitted me to retayn a copy, the which I append below. I freely confess I do not understand the whole of this epistle, but am content that it expresses an intent more peacable than anything else.

My Return

Afterwards I found myself return’d home, and landed in a field not far from Calais, in his Majesty’s lands. The sphear in which I travel’d is itself a wonder, being of a cristal material not hitherto known of Science, and as transparent as the finest glass; and the Propulse set into its base, though our enginneers cannot (I hear) contrive to unfix it, is of a new design. Better yet, the Sphear cohntained a number of ingots of metal, in which ayr is capable of being compressed to a size greatly smaller than its natural state; and which, once pumps are made strong enough to force the procedure, will greatly assist the passage through the hights.

The wreck of the Cometes has been recover’d, and its Propulse return’d to Greenwich; and tho’ I report with melancholy that my attempts to dislodge it, when I was crash’d upon the Moon’s shore & thought to carry it with me, have damag’d its actions, yet there is, or so I believe, some hopes that it may be dismantl’d and its motile power uncovered. At any rate, the new Propulse, and the Cristal Sphear, more than recompense the wreck of the Cometes; and the Stock of my Certificated Gentleman (Sir George Oxenden, Bart, and Sir John Jennings) have earn’d them in excess of £200000, silver. The destruction of the Cristal House upon the Moon is laid at its true source, Spain, and the war takes a good turn. Here, at last, is the letter the Patien beast wrote, using my hand, as backwards as if a river ran up-hill.

I do confess me that the main burden of this letter escapes my understanding; and such wize men as have study’d it appear as baffled as any, or at least provide conflicting interpretations thereof. I include it here that any who read this account my, if they chuse, butt their wits against it. As to whether the professions it contains of peace, and the claim that the Patien race spring from our loins, you may believe, or disbelieve, as you see fit.

For myself, I believe this to be a feint, or elaborate lie; or else a mere piece of foolery; for the Patien have often shown themselves to be capricious and incapable of prediction. And if they come peacefully (some say) then how is it that our people have, on occasion, come to battle with them? But I reproduce this note here, at any rate; and can do no other. My counsel, if it is sought, is that we may not trust the Patiens, and that if opportunity should arrive we must cry delenda est Cathargo against them. I say this in full consciousness of the assistance they gave me in my return, hither, to this world; for as their intentions to remain opacque, so must we beware them. Otherwise, the returns on this Selenic mission being so advantageous, and the new method of compressing the breathable ayr into portable cylinders, should make a new cruise to Mars viable; and I daresay the establishment thereupon of a settlement, which I propose be called Georgetown. William Chetwin, 1728.