The Man Who Called Himself Poe

by Sam Moskowitz

  culties in collecting the materials, procuring provisions and

  seamen for the voyage, accumulating a small but select

  library, and philosophical apparatus for our entertainment

  upon the passage, we found ourselves upon the banks of

  Trent River, near Newbem, in North Carolina, ready to

  take our departure, upon the 4th of July, 1836. After cele-

  brating this great anniversary of our independence with our

  fellow-citizens, amidst the greatest hilarity, and partaking

  of its festivity with a zest we had never before experienced,

  we departed in the afternoon amidst the benedictions of

  numerous friends and the acclamations of the multitude.

  Seeming to proceed by magical influence, we soon passed,

  at the rate of twenty miles an horn, through Pamlico sound

  and Ocracoke bar into the Atlantic Ocean. Our ship, which

  was about the size of the boats that ply then־ courses in the

  Delaware and the Hudson, moved majestically through the

  deep, and appeared to claim the homage which is due to

  to the great genius of Fulton, to whose exertions are man-

  kind indebted not only for the invention of the steamboat,

  but for all those improvements in navigation and locomo-

  tion which shall arise out of it. Proceeding at the rate of

  fifteen or twenty, and when aided by winds and currents,

  thirty miles an hour, we soon reached the extremity of the

  United States, entered the gulf of Mexico, stopt for amuse-

  ment at Havanna, thence proceeded along the coast of

  South America, and soon found ourselves at the mouth of

  the great river La Plata. Intending to avail ourselves of the

  whole warmth afforded by the sun upon its return from

  the equator towards the southern Tropic, we remained in the

  delightful climate of Buenos Ayres, enjoying the hospitality

  of the inhabitants and the admiration bestowed upon our

  curious invention, until the beginning of October, at which

  time we renewed our voyage with favourable auspices, and

  under the most exulting hopes. From this period nothing

  occurred which is worthy of record, until passing by Terra

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  del Fuego and Cape Horn, we had directed our course due

  south to the sixtieth degree of south latitude. Here our

  thermometer, which had hitherto denoted a temperate

  warmth, began rapidly to descend, and we were encoun-

  tered by masses of floating ice which rendered our progess

  difficult and precarious. Before we reached the sixty-fifth

  degree of latitude, we saw at various distances those im-

  mense icebergs, which it required all our address and skill

  to avoid, which rendered some miles circuit necessary to

  compass them, and from the irresistible force of which, we

  were repeatedly involved in the greatest danger. In this

  conflict with icebergs, however, we found the full advan-

  tage of our new and voluntary mode of navigation. Being

  able to advance or recede at our pleasure, we eluded the

  attacks of these formidable enemies, and in spite of cold,

  storms and tempests, advanced triumphantly on our way,

  until in latitude seventy, when Fahrenheit’s thermometer

  stood at 300 below zero, and we began to sink into

  despair, a series of phenomena were presented totally

  unknown to science and in the highest degree interesting

  to the philosophical observer. From a region of intense and

  intolerable cold and tempestuous weather, we were trans-

  ported to a thick and murky atmosphere, in the gloomy and

  darkened state of which, we found respiration difficult, all

  our senses seemed disordered, and through the gloom every

  frightful and fantastic form floated that could be con-

  ceived as crude and monstrous. During our passage through

  this tract of ocean, all our usual prescriptions were sus-

  pended, and we sank into what appeared an incurable

  slumber, or deliquium. How long we continued in this

  anomalous state of being, it was impossible to calculate.

  But as the ship, from her peculiar construction, continued

  her course with the usual velocity, we soon found ourselves

  aroused from this lethargic and painful condition, and

  wafted into a region in which the air was not only respir-

  able, but inconceivably soft and bland, and the light more

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  sweet and serene than we had ever before beheld. The

  whole ocean and sky seemed now to beam with a smile

  as enrapturing as any idea we can form of heaven. From

  the facts which I have just stated, captain Pinzon and I

  agreed in the inference, that the reason why no navigators

  in these waters, have ever explored the country whose won-

  ders I shall now unfold, is, either that they have been

  deterred from advancing through the icy regions before

  described, or that when they came into this air at first

  irrespirable by human organs, they have perished under its

  influence, inasmuch as the vessels in which they voyaged,

  not borne forward as ours by the new contrivance, have

  been arrested in their progress, and thus left them without

  the power of revival. Let captain Wilks, the commander

  of the squadron just despatched to these regions by the

  American government, and his assistant officers, who are to

  conduct this exploration of the South Seas, to whom we

  have communicated these facts, take warning from our

  experience, and be upon their guard against fatal disasters,

  when they shall pass beyond the latitude of seventy de-

  grees south. Should they be able safely to pass over this

  irrespirable tract of ocean, all the wonders and glories of

  Saturnia, will be revealed to them.

  c h a p t e r n.

  Our arrival at Saturnia.

  No sooner had we been aroused from the state of uncon-

  sciousness, which was mentioned in our last chapter, than

  we seemed to be awakened into a new and more rapturous

  existence, and wafted into an elysian or Paradisal scene.

  When thoroughly revived from our temporary slumber,

  our minds and bodies had undergone a renovation, all the

  senses had become more acute and susceptible of pleasure,

  and all the perceptions of the understanding more clear,

  THE M AN WHO CALLED HIMSELF POE

  satisfactory and enlivening. In this state of untried enjoy-

  ment, the vicissitudes of which had excited superstitious

  alarms in some of our crew, and the most sanguine expec-

  tations in others, we continued our course due south, not

  doubting that our labours would at length be crowned with

  the most signal results. We had proceeded in this direction

  but a few hours longer, when to our equal astonishment,

  admiration and delight, we descried land, and soon found

  that we were approaching the mouth of a noble river, like

  the Hudson, through which vessels moving like our own and

  magnificently constructed, were passing and repassing, at

  once apprising us of our vicinity to a large capital. Upon

  each sid
e of this river, at its mouth, which appeared about

  two miles wide, were stationed two superb light-houses to

  guide mariners in the night, and in the stream were placed

  luminous buoys extending several feet above the surface,

  which prevented the navigator from deviating out of the

  channel. Upon entering the river, we perceived on each

  side a finely cultivated country, neat but commodious farm-

  houses, magnificent dwellings, beautiful lawns and gardens

  laid out in the chastest simplicity and most correct taste,

  and altogether a country in which the allied arts of agricul-

  ture, commerce and manufacture had exerted their utmost

  skill in advancing it to the highest state of improvement and

  perfection. While regaling ourselves with this sight, and con-

  templating this delightful residence for man, what was our

  emotion, when after plying our course about two miles far-

  ther within the land, we were ushered into a spacious bay,

  and the vast panorama of the capital city and its environs,

  its magnificent buildings, its hills, mountains, valleys and

  superb monuments of art, were presented to our vision?

  Vessels and boats of every size and various figures were glid-

  ing in every direction through the bay and rivers, while the

  wharves were thickly crowded with others loading and un-

  loading—innumerable houses appeared to crown the sum-

  mits of the hills and hang upon their declivities, the streets

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  were arranged with mathematical exactitude, of spacious

  dimensions and shaded with beautiful trees, at the same

  time that numerous streams intersected the city, all the

  parts of which were connected by durable and splendid

  bridges, that in their construction, indicated the highest

  progress in the arts. Over our heads were floating balloons

  of all dimensions, that seemed to advance by voluntary

  effort towards every point of the compass. As far as our sight

  extended, we saw the steeples of the churches, towers

  erected for various purposes, a college and observatory,

  more lofty than we had ever beheld, and whose tops ap-

  peared at the moment, to be lost amidst the clouds. Such

  a vast and sublime assemblage of objects, at once bursting

  upon our view, seemed to present to us the image of the

  New Jerusalem, as depicted in the Revelations, and threw

  me into an ecstasy of enjoyment, from which I did not re-

  cover until under the guidance of captain Pinzon. Our ship

  was safely fastened to the wharf of that town, to which we

  afterwards discovered the inhabitants had affixed the name

  of Saturnia, the capital city of the republic of Atlantis.

  c h a p t e r i n .

  My removal to a Hotel.

  Nothing could exceed the astonishment which was ex-

  cited by our arrival at Satumia; the wharf was soon

  crowded with innumerable spectators, wondering by what

  contingency we could have escaped the perils of the deep,

  and have performed so unheard-of a voyage, and the news

  of this strange event spread rapidly to the remotest quarters

  of the town—I was equally surprised at the novelty of the

  objects now presented to my observation, the neatness and

  elegance of the place, as well as the decency, order and

  regularity with which every thing seemed to be conducted.

  The men and women presented the most comely and well-

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  proportioned figures I had ever beheld and were remark-

  ably well dressed; the wharves and houses, constructed of

  the best stone and marble, were truly magnificent, and the

  streets, promenades, arbours, parks and pleasure grounds,

  seemed to be laid out with all the taste and judgment which

  could be displayed in the workmanship of the most en-

  lightened and scientific artisans and mechanics.—Not a

  vessel with sails floated within view, and the whole busi-

  ness of commerce and navigation is here conducted by

  vessels and boats which like our own, moved spontaneously

  through the waters. Here was more than realized, the bold

  declaration of Fitch, an ingenious mechanic of New-Jersey,

  who, above a half a century ago, predicted to the legislature

  of that state, that not only would our rivers be navigated

  by steam, but, that, finally, all commerce and trade be-

  tween the different nations of the earth would be carried

  on by this method of communication. I cannot adequately

  describe the impressions made upon my mind by this singu-

  lar and wonderful scene. I was rapt into a reverie, or rather

  an ecstasy of delight—the very air of the place appeared to

  be unusually pure and ethereal, the sun shone with a more

  serene splendour, and the heavens seemed to shed around

  us more select influences. Into what kind of country and

  climate, I inwardly ejaculated, have I been transported?

  To ascertain this, I was now impelled by irresistible curi-

  osity, and my anticipation of the pleasure which awaited

  me, in this unexpected condition of being, arose to the

  highest pitch of enthusiasm.

  My next step was to make efforts to disembark, and obtain

  an agreeable place of residence in the city. Calling for a

  porter, to bear my trunks and baggage to the most approved

  hotel, several men of this order immediately presented

  themselves, who, from the conversation which passed be-

  tween them I learned were called by the names of Nero,

  Tiberius, Borgia, and Ravaillac,—what mean these appella-

  tions? I exclaimed with surprise. These are names to which

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  I have become familiarized in history, and nothing to the

  credit of the persons who bore them, but I never before

  had the honour of a personal acquaintance with those noto־

  rious gentlemen. Are those titles given you in derision, or by

  way of punishment for any offences you may have com-

  mitted in this extraordinary world, into which I have been

  so unexpectedly introduced? These are the names we bore,

  replied they, holding down their heads, in our former state

  of being, that world from which, we presume, you have

  just arrived, and we are but too glad to exercise our present

  vocations, since we have just been released from very

  severe punishments to which we were condemned for the

  parts we perfonned in our former state of being. Is it pos־

  sible, I rejoined, and pray, in what city and country am I

  now to consider myself; for, it seems to me, as if all that is

  passing before my eyes, are but disturbed visions of the

  night. Oh! sir, replied Nero, this is the city of Satumia and

  country of Atlantis, the most outlandish and detestable

  abode that ever gentlemen were constrained to inhabit: all

  things are sadly altered since those glorious days when I

  and Tiberius were emperours in Rome. To distribute jus־

  tice, as they call it, emperours, kings, popes, cardinals,

  lords, bishops, and all the
great men of former times, are

  here condemned to the most ignominious punishments, and

  then compelled to labour on the highways or become por־

  ters, waiters, lackeys, carmen, and servants. Now, it might

  be right to deal in this manner with thieves, robbers, mur-

  derers, and villains, among the vile populace, but thus to

  humble, torment, and trample upon men of high rank and

  distinction, is intolerable. This singular conversation threw

  me into a train of profound study and rapt reflection; and

  I perceived that I had, indeed, reached a land of miracles.

  W hat inestimable advantages, thought I, would it be to

  mankind, did they know that besides that future state which

  is revealed in Scripture, they would have to pass through

  such a condition of being—such an intermediate dispensa-

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  tion of good and evil as they find here. In this frame of

  mind I followed Nero and Tiberius through several squares

  of the town, until we arrived at the hotel of which we

  were in quest. This was a magnificent building, constructed

  with remarkable simplicity and elegance; all the rooms

  and appurtenances of which were admirably adapted to

  the convenience and accommodation of travellers and

  guests. I took possession of one of the best furnished rooms,

  and determined as soon as possible to commence those

  inquiries in regard to the government, laws, institutions,

  manners, religion, science, literature, and arts, of this ex-

  traordinary people, of which a full account shall be given in

  the following chapters.

  CHAPTER IV.

  My meeting with Dr. Franklin, and the proceedings of the

  Philosophical Society,

  After taking supper I retired to my room to obtain repose,

  and although from the agitation of my spirits, and extreme

  excitement of mind, I found some difficulty in composing

  myself to rest, yet at length I found in that temporary sus-

  pension of thought, which takes place in sleep, the relief

  and refreshment which my exhausted nature required.

  Upon waking in the morning, and being summoned to

  breakfast, it is impossible to describe my sensations when

  I discovered seated at the table by my side the old and

  valued friend of my father, Dr. Franklin, upon whose knees