Poe, Edgar Allen - The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe

by Volume 01-05 (lit)

  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