Каарон Уоррен - The Lowest Heaven

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.