with the greatest difficulty that any one could be made to credit the
actual voyage - _the crossing of the Atlantic_. The grapnel caught
at 2, P.M., precisely ; and thus the whole voyage was completed in
seventy-five hours ; or rather less, counting from shore to shore.
No serious accident occurred. No real danger was at any time
apprehended. The balloon was exhausted and secured without trouble ;
and when the MS. from which this narrative is compiled was
despatched from Charleston, the party were still at Fort Moultrie.
Their farther intentions were not ascertained ; but we can safely
promise our readers some additional information either on Monday or
in the course of the next day, at farthest.
This is unquestionably the most stupendous, the most interesting,
and the most important undertaking, ever accomplished or even
attempted by man. What magnificent events may ensue, it would be
useless now to think of determining.
~~~ End of Text ~~~
{*1} _Note_. - Mr. Ainsworth has not attempted to account for this
phenomenon, which, however, is quite susceptible of explanation. A
line dropped from an elevation of 25,000 feet, perpendicularly to the
surface of the earth (or sea), would form the perpendicular of a
right-angled triangle, of which the base would extend from the right
angle to the horizon, and the hypothenuse from the horizon to the
balloon. But the 25,000 feet of altitude is little or nothing, in
comparison with the extent of the prospect. In other words, the base
and hypothenuse of the supposed triangle would be so long when
compared with the perpendicular, that the two former may be regarded
as nearly parallel. In this manner the horizon of the µronaut would
appear to be _on a level_ with the car. But, as the point immediately
beneath him seems, and is, at a great distance below him, it seems,
of course, also, at a great distance below the horizon. Hence the
impression of _concavity_ ; and this impression must remain, until
the elevation shall bear so great a proportion to the extent of
prospect, that the apparent parallelism of the base and hypothenuse
disappears - when the earth's real convexity must become apparent.
==========
MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE
Qui n'a plus qu'un moment a vivre
N'a plus rien a dissimuler.
-- Quinault -- Atys.
OF my country and of my family I have little to say. Ill usage and
length of years have driven me from the one, and estranged me from
the other. Hereditary wealth afforded me an education of no common
order, and a contemplative turn of mind enabled me to methodize the
stores which early study very diligently garnered up. -- Beyond all
things, the study of the German moralists gave me great delight; not
from any ill-advised admiration of their eloquent madness, but from
the ease with which my habits of rigid thought enabled me to detect
their falsities. I have often been reproached with the aridity of my
genius; a deficiency of imagination has been imputed to me as a
crime; and the Pyrrhonism of my opinions has at all times rendered me
notorious. Indeed, a strong relish for physical philosophy has, I
fear, tinctured my mind with a very common error of this age -- I
mean the habit of referring occurrences, even the least susceptible
of such reference, to the principles of that science. Upon the whole,
no person could be less liable than myself to be led away from the
severe precincts of truth by the ignes fatui of superstition. I have
thought proper to premise thus much, lest the incredible tale I have
to tell should be considered rather the raving of a crude
imagination, than the positive experience of a mind to which the
reveries of fancy have been a dead letter and a nullity.
After many years spent in foreign travel, I sailed in the year 18 --
, from the port of Batavia, in the rich and populous island of Java,
on a voyage to the Archipelago of the Sunda islands. I went as
passenger -- having no other inducement than a kind of nervous
restlessness which haunted me as a fiend.
Our vessel was a beautiful ship of about four hundred tons,
copper-fastened, and built at Bombay of Malabar teak. She was
freighted with cotton-wool and oil, from the Lachadive islands. We
had also on board coir, jaggeree, ghee, cocoa-nuts, and a few cases
of opium. The stowage was clumsily done, and the vessel consequently
crank.
We got under way with a mere breath of wind, and for many days stood
along the eastern coast of Java, without any other incident to
beguile the monotony of our course than the occasional meeting with
some of the small grabs of the Archipelago to which we were bound.
One evening, leaning over the taffrail, I observed a very singular,
isolated cloud, to the N.W. It was remarkable, as well for its color,
as from its being the first we had seen since our departure from
Batavia. I watched it attentively until sunset, when it spread all at
once to the eastward and westward, girting in the horizon with a
narrow strip of vapor, and looking like a long line of low beach. My
notice was soon afterwards attracted by the dusky-red appearance of
the moon, and the peculiar character of the sea. The latter was
undergoing a rapid change, and the water seemed more than usually
transparent. Although I could distinctly see the bottom, yet, heaving
the lead, I found the ship in fifteen fathoms. The air now became
intolerably hot, and was loaded with spiral exhalations similar to
those arising from heat iron. As night came on, every breath of wind
died away, an more entire calm it is impossible to conceive. The
flame of a candle burned upon the poop without the least perceptible
motion, and a long hair, held between the finger and thumb, hung
without the possibility of detecting a vibration. However, as the
captain said he could perceive no indication of danger, and as we
were drifting in bodily to shore, he ordered the sails to be furled,
and the anchor let go. No watch was set, and the crew, consisting
principally of Malays, stretched themselves deliberately upon deck. I
went below -- not without a full presentiment of evil. Indeed, every
appearance warranted me in apprehending a Simoom. I told the captain
my fears; but he paid no attention to what I said, and left me
without deigning to give a reply. My uneasiness, however, prevented
me from sleeping, and about midnight I went upon deck. -- As I placed
my foot upon the upper step of the companion-ladder, I was startled
by a loud, humming noise, like that occasioned by the rapid
revolution of a mill-wheel, and before I could ascertain its meaning,
I found the ship quivering to its centre. In the next instant, a
wilderness of foam hurled us upon our beam-ends, and, rushing over us
fore and aft, swept the entire decks from stem to stern.
The extreme fury of the blast proved, in a great measure, the
salvation of the ship. Although completely water-logged, yet, as her
masts had gone by the board, she rose, after a mi
nute, heavily from
the sea, and, staggering awhile beneath the immense pressure of the
tempest, finally righted.
By what miracle I escaped destruction, it is impossible to say.
Stunned by the shock of the water, I found myself, upon recovery,
jammed in between the stern-post and rudder. With great difficulty I
gained my feet, and looking dizzily around, was, at first, struck
with the idea of our being among breakers; so terrific, beyond the
wildest imagination, was the whirlpool of mountainous and foaming
ocean within which we were engulfed. After a while, I heard the voice
of an old Swede, who had shipped with us at the moment of our leaving
port. I hallooed to him with all my strength, and presently he came
reeling aft. We soon discovered that we were the sole survivors of
the accident. All on deck, with the exception of ourselves, had been
swept overboard; -- the captain and mates must have perished as they
slept, for the cabins were deluged with water. Without assistance, we
could expect to do little for the security of the ship, and our
exertions were at first paralyzed by the momentary expectation of
going down. Our cable had, of course, parted like pack-thread, at the
first breath of the hurricane, or we should have been instantaneously
overwhelmed. We scudded with frightful velocity before the sea, and
the water made clear breaches over us. The frame-work of our stern
was shattered excessively, and, in almost every respect, we had
received considerable injury; but to our extreme Joy we found the
pumps unchoked, and that we had made no great shifting of our
ballast. The main fury of the blast had already blown over, and we
apprehended little danger from the violence of the wind; but we
looked forward to its total cessation with dismay; well believing,
that, in our shattered condition, we should inevitably perish in the
tremendous swell which would ensue. But this very just apprehension
seemed by no means likely to be soon verified. For five entire days
and nights -- during which our only subsistence was a small quantity
of jaggeree, procured with great difficulty from the forecastle --
the hulk flew at a rate defying computation, before rapidly
succeeding flaws of wind, which, without equalling the first violence
of the Simoom, were still more terrific than any tempest I had before
encountered. Our course for the first four days was, with trifling
variations, S.E. and by S.; and we must have run down the coast of
New Holland. -- On the fifth day the cold became extreme, although
the wind had hauled round a point more to the northward. -- The sun
arose with a sickly yellow lustre, and clambered a very few degrees
above the horizon -- emitting no decisive light. -- There were no
clouds apparent, yet the wind was upon the increase, and blew with a
fitful and unsteady fury. About noon, as nearly as we could guess,
our attention was again arrested by the appearance of the sun. It
gave out no light, properly so called, but a dull and sullen glow
without reflection, as if all its rays were polarized. Just before
sinking within the turgid sea, its central fires suddenly went out,
as if hurriedly extinguished by some unaccountable power. It was a
dim, sliver-like rim, alone, as it rushed down the unfathomable
ocean.
We waited in vain for the arrival of the sixth day -- that day to me
has not arrived -- to the Swede, never did arrive. Thenceforward we
were enshrouded in patchy darkness, so that we could not have seen an
object at twenty paces from the ship. Eternal night continued to
envelop us, all unrelieved by the phosphoric sea-brilliancy to which
we had been accustomed in the tropics. We observed too, that,
although the tempest continued to rage with unabated violence, there
was no longer to be discovered the usual appearance of surf, or foam,
which had hitherto attended us. All around were horror, and thick
gloom, and a black sweltering desert of ebony. -- Superstitious
terror crept by degrees into the spirit of the old Swede, and my own
soul was wrapped up in silent wonder. We neglected all care of the
ship, as worse than useless, and securing ourselves, as well as
possible, to the stump of the mizen-mast, looked out bitterly into
the world of ocean. We had no means of calculating time, nor could we
form any guess of our situation. We were, however, well aware of
having made farther to the southward than any previous navigators,
and felt great amazement at not meeting with the usual impediments of
ice. In the meantime every moment threatened to be our last -- every
mountainous billow hurried to overwhelm us. The swell surpassed
anything I had imagined possible, and that we were not instantly
buried is a miracle. My companion spoke of the lightness of our
cargo, and reminded me of the excellent qualities of our ship; but I
could not help feeling the utter hopelessness of hope itself, and
prepared myself gloomily for that death which I thought nothing could
defer beyond an hour, as, with every knot of way the ship made, the
swelling of the black stupendous seas became more dismally appalling.
At times we gasped for breath at an elevation beyond the albatross --
at times became dizzy with the velocity of our descent into some
watery hell, where the air grew stagnant, and no sound disturbed the
slumbers of the kraken.
We were at the bottom of one of these abysses, when a quick scream
from my companion broke fearfully upon the night. "See! see!" cried
he, shrieking in my ears, "Almighty God! see! see!" As he spoke, I
became aware of a dull, sullen glare of red light which streamed down
the sides of the vast chasm where we lay, and threw a fitful
brilliancy upon our deck. Casting my eyes upwards, I beheld a
spectacle which froze the current of my blood. At a terrific height
directly above us, and upon the very verge of the precipitous
descent, hovered a gigantic ship of, perhaps, four thousand tons.
Although upreared upon the summit of a wave more than a hundred times
her own altitude, her apparent size exceeded that of any ship of the
line or East Indiaman in existence. Her huge hull was of a deep dingy
black, unrelieved by any of the customary carvings of a ship. A
single row of brass cannon protruded from her open ports, and dashed
from their polished surfaces the fires of innumerable
battle-lanterns, which swung to and fro about her rigging. But what
mainly inspired us with horror and astonishment, was that she bore up
under a press of sail in the very teeth of that supernatural sea, and
of that ungovernable hurricane. When we first discovered her, her
bows were alone to be seen, as she rose slowly from the dim and
horrible gulf beyond her. For a moment of intense terror she paused
upon the giddy pinnacle, as if in contemplation of her own sublimity,
then trembled and tottered, and -- came down.
At this instant, I know not what sudden self-possession came over my
spirit. Staggering as far aft as I could, I awaited fearlessly the
ruin
that was to overwhelm. Our own vessel was at length ceasing from
her struggles, and sinking with her head to the sea. The shock of the
descending mass struck her, consequently, in that portion of her
frame which was already under water, and the inevitable result was to
hurl me, with irresistible violence, upon the rigging of the
stranger.
As I fell, the ship hove in stays, and went about; and to the
confusion ensuing I attributed my escape from the notice of the crew.
With little difficulty I made my way unperceived to the main
hatchway, which was partially open, and soon found an opportunity of
secreting myself in the hold. Why I did so I can hardly tell. An
indefinite sense of awe, which at first sight of the navigators of
the ship had taken hold of my mind, was perhaps the principle of my
concealment. I was unwilling to trust myself with a race of people
who had offered, to the cursory glance I had taken, so many points of
vague novelty, doubt, and apprehension. I therefore thought proper to
contrive a hiding-place in the hold. This I did by removing a small
portion of the shifting-boards, in such a manner as to afford me a
convenient retreat between the huge timbers of the ship.
I had scarcely completed my work, when a footstep in the hold forced
me to make use of it. A man passed by my place of concealment with a
feeble and unsteady gait. I could not see his face, but had an
opportunity of observing his general appearance. There was about it
an evidence of great age and infirmity. His knees tottered beneath a
load of years, and his entire frame quivered under the burthen. He
muttered to himself, in a low broken tone, some words of a language
which I could not understand, and groped in a corner among a pile of
singular-looking instruments, and decayed charts of navigation. His
manner was a wild mixture of the peevishness of second childhood, and
the solemn dignity of a God. He at length went on deck, and I saw him
no more.
* * * * * * * *
A feeling, for which I have no name, has taken possession of my soul
Poe, Edgar Allen - The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe Page 32