Peter arrives with the deputies—Presents them to the king—They return—A colony agreed to be sent thither—Nas gig made governor—Manner of choosing the colony—A flight-race, and the intent of it—Walsi wins the prize, and is found to be a gawry.

AS we alighted at the palace late at night, I kept the deputies with me till next morning, when I went to the king, desiring them to stay in my apartment till I had received his majesty's orders for their admission.

The king was but just up when I came in; and seeing me, embraced me, saying: "Dear father, I am glad to meet you again alive; your stay has given me the utmost perplexity; and could I have prevailed with any of my servants to have followed you, I had sent before this time to have known what was become of you."

I told his majesty, the greatest pleasure of my life consisted in the knowledge of his majesty's esteem for me; and he might depend upon it, I would take care of myself from a double motive whilst I was in his dominions; the one, from the natural obligation of my own preservation, and the other, equally compulsive, of continuing serviceable to his majesty, till I had made him more famous than his ancestor, the great Begsurbeck.

I told his majesty, as a small token of my duty and affection to him, I was come to make him a tender of the additional title of King of Mount Alkoe.—"Father," says he, "we shall never be able to get a sufficient number of my subjects to go thither; for though your safe return may be some encouragement, yet whilst their old apprehensions subsist (and I know not what will alter them) we can do no good; and indeed were they free to go, and under no suspicion of danger, it would cost abundance of men to conquer Mount Alkoe."

"Great sir," said I, "you mistake me: I told you I came to make you a tender of it; I have proclaimed you king there, and freedom to the people; I have held an assembly of the kingdom, placed a governor, taken the engagement of himself and subjects to you, settled laws amongst them for your benefit, the full third part of all their labour; have brought ten deputies, two from each denomination of people among them; and they only wait your command to be admitted, to beg your acceptance of their submission, and pray your royal protection."

"Father," says the king, "you amaze me! but as it is your doing, let them come in."

The deputies being received, and heard by Maleck, their interpreter, very graciously, the king told them, in a very favourable speech, that whatever his father had done, or should do, they might accept as done by himself; and commanded them to remind the governor, for whom he had the highest esteem, to observe the laws, without the least deviation, till his father should make such further additions as were consistent with his own honour and their future freedom; and having feasted them in a most magnificent manner, they returned, highly satisfied with the honours they had received.

This transaction being immediately noised abroad, all the colambs came themselves; and the great cities, by their deputies, sent his majesty their compliments upon the occasion; and there was nothing but mirth and rejoicing throughout the whole kingdom. And those who had refused going with me, as Maleck told me, hung their heads for shame and sorrow that they had missed the opportunity of bearing a part in the expedition.

I demonstrated to the king that the only way to preserve that kingdom was to settle a large colony on the plains, between the mountain and the sea, to intercept clandestine trade, and make a stand against any force that might be sent from the Little Lands to recover the mines. And I promised to be present at the settlement, and an assistant in it.

Most of the colambs, as I said, being at court upon this complimentary affair, the king summoned them for their advice on my proposals, and told them he had ordered me to lay before them my thoughts on the affairs of that kingdom; and after many compliments and encomiums had passed on me, I told them the necessity of the colony, the commodity that would arise from it, how I intended to manage it, and what prospect I had of introducing amongst them several extraordinary conveniences they had never before had.

The colambs, who, for want of practice this way, knew but little of the matter, thinking, nevertheless, that in the general turn of things they must somehow come in for a share, approved of all I said. I desired them then to settle out of what part of the people, and how to be nominated, such choice of the colony as should be made for the new settlement; but found them much at a loss to fix on any method of doing it. So I told them I believed it would be the best way to issue an order for such as would willingly go, to repair to a particular rendezvous; and in case sufficient should not appear voluntarily, to issue another order that the colambs, out of their several districts, should complete the number, so as to make a body of 12,000 men of arms, besides women and children; and that such a territory should be allotted to each, with so much wood-grounds, in common to all, as would suffice for their subsistence; all which passed the vote.

I then told them that this large people must have a head, or governor, to keep them to their duties, and to determine matters of property, and all disputes amongst them. Here they one and all nominated me; but I told them I apprehended I could be more useful other ways, having too many things in my head for the general good, to confine myself to any particular province; but if they would excuse me in presuming to recommend a person, it should be Nasgig. And immediately Nasgig being sent for, and accepting it, they conferred it upon him.

All things, as I judged, went on in so smooth a way, in reference to the new colony, that I was preparing, with the assistance of the proper officer, expresses to be sent with the king's gripsacks into the several provinces, with notice of these orders, and an appointment for a rendezvous. But while this was doing, abundance of people came crowding about me to be informed whether I thought it safe for them to go; and I believe I had fully satisfied all their scruples, when by some management of the ragans, who, having so long declared Mount Alkoe to be inhabited by Mindrack, did not care the people should all of a sudden find out they had deceived them, there was a report ran current, that though I and my bearers, who were all Mount Alkoe men, returned safe, yet if any of the Brandleguarpines had gone, they would never have come back again. This rumour coming to my ears, and fearing whitherto it might grow, I had no small prospect of a disappointment, and I thereupon stopped issuing the orders till I had considered what farther to do in the affair. At length, being persuaded I had already satisfied abundance of their scruples, and in order to dissipate the doubts of others, and to familiarise them in some measure to the country and people of Mount Alkoe, I proposed a prize to be flown for, and gave notice of it for six days all about the country, both to those of Mount Alkoe, and those of Sass Doorpt Swangeanti, that whoever, except those who were with me in the late expedition, should make the most speedy flight to the governor's of Mount Alkoe, to carry a message and bring me an answer from Lasmeel, should have one of my pistols, with a quantity of powder, and so many balls; and the person who should be second, should have a cutlass and belt. The time being fixed, very few had entered in the first two or three days; but on the third day came several over from Alkoe to enter, which the Brandleguarpines seeing, and having equal inclination to the prize, after half a dozen of them had entered on the fourth morning, before noon on the fifth I had near sixty of them on my list, besides the Alkoe men, making in all about one hundred.

The time of starting was fixed for the sixth morning, from off the rock on the back-side of the palace, upon my firing a pistol.

This unusual diversion occasioned a prodigious confluence of spectators; for scarce a person in Brandleguarp, except those who were either too young or too old for flight, but were upon one or other of the rocks; even the king himself and all his court were there, with infinite numbers from all distant parts.

I had despatched a letter by one of my old bearers to Lasmeel some days before, to inform him of it, that he might get two letters ready wrote, one to deliver to the first, and another to the second messenger, but not to take farther notice of the rest. Now, my flight-race being for the equal benefit of both the kingdoms, it happened, as I was in hopes it would, that so many of the Mount Alkoans coming over to me to be entered, and staying with me till the flight began, and such vast numbers of persons meeting of both nations upon the Black Mountain, to see them go and return, and several of the Swangeantines going, out of bravado, quite through with the flyers; the intercourse of the two nations was that day so great, and the discourse they had with the natives and miners so stripped the Swangeantines of their old apprehensions of danger from Mount Alkoe, that in three days after the whole dread of the place was vanished, and he would then have been thought mad who had attempted to revive it.

The time being come, I set my flyers in a row on the outer edge of the rock; and having given notice that no one should presume to rise till the flyers were on the graundee, and at such a distance, I then let the flyers know I should soon give fire; which I had no sooner done but down they all dropped as one man, as it were, headlong from the edge of the mountain, and presently the whole field were after them. They skimmed with incredible swiftness across the face of the plain, between the rock and the mountain; the force of which descent swung them as it were up the mountain's side in an almost upright posture, till seeming to sweep the edge of the mountain with their bellies, they slid over its surface till they were lost in the body of the Swangean, our rocks echoing the shouts of the mountaineers. I fired my pistol, by my watch, at nine o'clock in the morning, but had no occasion to inquire when it was thought they would return, for every one was passing his opinion upon it. Some said it could not be till midnight, or very near it; and others, that it would be almost next morning. However, we went to dinner, and coming again about six o'clock by my watch, I was told by the people on the rock, as the general opinion (for it was then topfull), that they could not yet be expected for a long time; and the major part concluded they could not be half-way home yet; when, on a sudden, we heard a prodigious shout from the mountain, which growing nearer and nearer to us, and louder and louder, in a few moments came a slim young fellow, and nimbly alighting on the rock, tripped briskly forward, as not being able to stop himself at once from the violence of the force he came with, and delivered me a letter from Lasmeel as I was sitting in my chair. I gave him joy of the prize, and ordered him to come to my apartment so soon as I got home, and he should have it. I then asked him where he had left the other flyers; he told me he knew nothing of them since he came past the forges in his return; for there he met them going to Lasmeel.—"Why that," says I, "must be a great way on this side the governor's." He told me about an hour's flight. I then told him, as he must be strained with so hard a flight, it would be better if he lay down, and called on me in the morning. He thanked me, and after he had told me his name was Walsi, he said he would take my advice, and springing up as light as air, went off, the rock being quite thronged with those who had followed from the mountain to see the victor.

When Walsi came in, it was just seven o'clock by my watch; so that, according to the best computation by miles I could make from their descriptions of things, I judged he had flown at little more or less than at the rate of a mile a minute.

I stayed till near nine o'clock upon the rock, where it being cold and the time tedious, I was taking Quilly home with me, and designed that Maleck should wait for the coming of the second; but hearing again a shout from the mountain I resolved to see the second come in myself. The noise increasing, I presently saw the whole air full of people very near me, for I had retired near two hundred paces from the edge of the rock to give room to the flyers to alight, and expected nothing less than to be borne down by them; when I spied two competitors, one just over the back of the other, the uppermost bearing down upon the other's graundee, their heads being just equal; so that the under man perceiving it impossible to sink lower for the rock, or to mount higher for the man above him, and as darting side-ways would lose time, and fearing to brush his belly against the rock, he slackened, just to job up his head in his antagonist's stomach; which giving the upper man a smart check with the pain, and the under one striking at that instant one bold stroke with his graundee, he fell just with his head at my feet, and the other man upon him, with his head in the under man's neck.

Thus they lay for a considerable time, breathless and motionless, save the working of their lungs, and heaving of their breasts; when each asked me if he was not the first, and the under man giving me a letter, I told them "No, Walsi had been in almost two hours ago." They both said it was impossible; they were sure no glumm in the Doorpt could outfly either of them. I ordered them both to call on me in the morning, and I would see they should have right done to their pretensions. The under man had but just told me his name was Naggitt, when another arrived, who, seeing Naggitt before him, told me he was sure he was second; but on seeing the other also he gave it up.

I would stay no longer, it being now so late; but the next morning I was informed that all the rest had stopped at the mountain but two, who were obliged to give out before, being overstrained, and unable to hold it.

The next morning Walsi was the first at my apartment, when I happened to be with the king; and speaking of his business to Quilly, he ordered him to stay in my gallery till I came back; and Quilly presently after seeing Youwarkee, told her the victor at the flight-race was waiting for me in the gallery. Youwarkee, who had great curiosity to see him, having heard how long he came in before the rest, stepped into the gallery, and taking a turn or two there, fell into discourse with him about his flight. And as women are very inquisitive, she distinguished, by the flyer's answers, speech, shape, and manner of address, that it was certainly a gawry she was talking with; though she had endeavoured to disguise herself by rolling in her hair, and tying it round her head with a broad chaplet, like a man; and by the thinness of her body, and flatness of her breasts, might fairly enough have passed for one, to a less penetrating eye than Youwarkee's. But Youwarkee putting some questions to her, and saying she was more like a gawry than a glumm, she put the poor girl—for so it was—to the blush, and at last she confessed the deceit; but upon her knees begged Youwarkee not to mention it, for it would be her undoing.

This confession gave Youwarkee a fair opportunity of asking how she came to be an adventurer for this sort of prize. The girl, finding there was no remedy, frankly confessed she had a strong affection for a glumboss, who was a very stout glumm, she said, but somewhat too corpulent for speedy flight; who ever since the prize had been proposed, could rest neither night nor day, to think he was not so well qualified to put in for it as others, especially one Naggitt, who he well knew made his addresses to her, and also was an adventurer. "Had it been a matter of strength, valour, or manhood," says he, "I had had the best of chances for it; but to be under a natural incapacity of obtaining so glorious a prize, as even the king himself is not master of such another, I cannot bear it." She then said he had told her he was resolved to give in his name and do his utmost, though he died in the flight. "What!" said he, "shall I see Naggitt run away with it, and perhaps with you too, when he has that to lay at your feet which no glumm else can boast of? No; I'll overcome, or never come home without it!"—"I must confess, madam," says Walsi, "as I knew his high spirit could never bear to be vanquished, I was afraid he would be as good as his word, and come to some unlucky end; and told him that though he need not have feared being conqueror in anything else, had it been proposed, yet in flight there were so many, half glumms as they were, who from their effeminate make and size, and little value for anything else, would certainly be in before him; that it was unworthy of a thorough glumm to contend with them for what could be obtained only by those who had no right to or share in anything more excellent; and that he must therefore not think of more than his fatigue for his pains. But as he had set his heart so much upon it, I would enter, and try to get it for him, as from my size and make, I believed few would have a better chance for it than myself. And, thanks to Collwar, madam," says she, "I hope to make him easy in it, if you will but please to conceal your knowledge of who and what I am."

Youwarkee was mightily pleased with her story, and promised she would; but engaged her to come again to her apartment so soon as she was possessed of the prize.

When I returned, hearing Walsi waited for me, I called him in, read the letter he brought, and finding it Lasmeel's, I looked over my list for Walsi's name, for I set them all down as they entered; and finding it the very last name of all, and that it was entered but on the morning the race was flown: "So," says I, "Walsi, I find the last at entering is the first at returning; but I see you have been there, by what Lasmeel has sent me; though there were some last night who questioned it, by your so speedy return. Here," says I, "take the prize, and see they are only used in the service of your country;" and then I dismissed her.

My two competitors appeared next for the cutlass, and had each of them many arguments to prevail with me in favour of him; but I told them I must do justice, and that though the difference was so small between them, yet certainly Naggitt was the nearest me at the time they both ceased flight, his face lying on my foot; so that as they both complained of foul play, and were therefore equal in that respect, Naggitt in justice must have it. And I gave it him with these words, however: "Take it, Naggitt, as certainly yours by the law of the race, but with a diffidence in myself who best deserves it."

I own I pitied the other man's case very much, as I should Naggitt's, had the other won it; but seeing the other turning away, and hearing him say, "But by half a head; when I had strove so hard!" as in a sort of dejection, I told them they were both brave glumms, and of intrepid resolution; and gave him also one, with the like instruction as to Walsi.

Walsi went from me, as she had promised, to Youwarkee, who wanted more discourse with her; for in an affair of love her gentle heart could have dwelt all day upon the repetition of any circumstances which would create delight in the enamoured. Walsi sat on thorns, wanting to be gone; but Youwarkee asking question upon question, Walsi got up and begged she would excuse her, she would come and stay at any other time. "But," says she, "madam, when the man one loves is in pain—for I am sure he is on the rack for fear of a discovery, till he sees me—if you ever loved yourself, you can't blame me for pressing to relieve him."

When she was gone, Youwarkee finding me alone, was so full of Walsi's adventure she could not be silent; but after twenty roundabout speeches and promises that I was to make, not to be angry with anybody, or undo anything I had done that day, and I know not what, out came the story. I was prodigiously pleased with it, and wished I had taken more notice of her. Says Youwarkee, "I endeavoured to keep her till you had done, that you might have seen her."—"And why did not you?" says I.—"My dear," says Youwarkee, "had you seen the poor creature's uneasiness till she got off with it, yourself could not have had the heart to have deferred that pleasure you would have perceived she expected when she came home; nor could you in conscience have detained her."