“A scene surpassing Fancy’s vision.”
Gently rolling hills within an easy sloping shore, covered with verdure, chequered with groves of trees and shrubbery, studded with numerous white buildings, and animated with groups of men and cattle, all standing in relief near the foot of a lofty mountain, which in the distance reared its majestic head above the clouds, offered to mariners long confined to a wide waste of water the highest reward for their enterprise and perseverance;—the heartfelt satisfaction, that it was to their courage and skill that their fellow citizens would be indebted for the contemplation of so much loveliness. Here there was nothing wanting to a perfect landscape. Plain, hill, and dell sometimes rising with an easy slope, at others, broken, abrupt, or craggy; with an ocean in front, and a mountain in the rear, it was complete.
When the bright light of the sun first presented distant objects distinctly to our view, there were great numbers of vessels and boats in sight, mostly near the shore. We had repeatedly seen them during the night flitting past us like the shades of departed mortals. Immediately on observing our extraordinary appearance, they all retired towards an opening in the land to the northward, whither we followed them, and soon found that the apparent opening in the shore was occasioned by an island a short distance from the coast, having a roadstead within it, in which were several vessels at anchor. After hoisting out our boats, and seeing our guns in order, I stood in to the roadstead, with my boats ahead. As we approached the anchorage, the vessels all retired into the mouth of a river which they ascended until quite out of sight.
At noon, on the 24th of December, we anchored in 14 fathoms water, on a fine sandy bottom. This land, out of gratitude to Capt. Symmes for his sublime theory, I immediately named Symzonia. The coast lay about S. S. W. and N. N. E. In the roadstead we were sheltered from all winds except those which blew directly along shore. These were not much to be feared, for we had found the prevailing W. S. W. winds to blow as steady as a trade wind for several days without any gales or stormy weather.
I passed an hour in surveying the enchanting scene by which I was surrounded, and in making preparations for a visit to the inhabitants of this internal world. I shaved my beard as smooth as I could, put on my best go-ashore clothes, and swung my hanger by my side, to make my appearance as imposing as possible. Here a difficulty occurred. I wanted an officer to leave in charge of the boat, on whose firmness and discretion I could rely in case of difficulty with the natives. I could not take Albicore, without leaving Slim in command of the Explorer, which was not to be thought of. I would not take Slim with me, for he would be more likely to contrive some way to get my throat cut out of sheer malice, than to use prudent measures for my safety. Will Mackerel was so hasty, that he would probably shoot the natives like pigeons, should he fancy them to be offering any offence or insult to his commander. I therefore determined to take Jack Whiffle, ostensibly to act as cockswain, with six of my best men, furnished with a musket, a pair of pistols, and a sabre each.
Thus equipped, and with the stripes and stars waving over the stern of the boat, I proceeded to the shore, having first instructed Albicore to offer no offence to any people who might approach the ship in my absence, unless it became necessary in actual self defence, or to prevent them from taking possession of the vessel; and to inform me by signal should any superior force appear in the offing, or any danger be apprehended.
There were a number of buildings on the island, one of which from its magnitude and superior appearance to the others, I judged to be a public edifice of some sort. This structure was two stories high, while all the others were but one. In the front, a large open portico with an extensive platform, appeared to be a place of business, great numbers of people being collected upon it. In front of this building, a jettee into the water afforded convenient landing, and I directed the boat to be placed alongside of it As I approached, all the people retired, and no sooner had I stepped upon the jettee than those in front of the large building moved into it.
Being determined to open an immediate communication with this people, who from the comforts with which they were surrounded could not be savages, I took off my sword, and gave it to Whiffle, and ordered him to lay off with the boat a half pistol shot from the shore, and not to fire a shot, nor to show his arms, unless he saw me run, or heard me fire a pistol; in which cases he must pull into the most convenient place to take me off, and to defend me.
I then walked slowly up the jettee. When I reached the head of it, I took off my hat and made a low bow towards the building, to show the Internals that I had some sense of politeness. No one appeared. I walked slowly up the sloping lawn, stopped, looked about me, and bowed, but still no one appeared to return my civilities. I walked on, and had arrived within one hundred yards of the portico, when I recollected, that when Captain Ross was impeded in his progress northward by the northern ‘icy hoop,’ he met with some men on the ice who told him they came from the north, where there was land and an open sea. These men were swarthy, which Capt. Symmes attributes to their being inhabitants of the hot regions within the internal polar circle; in which opinion he was no doubt correct. I had frequently reflected on this circumstance, and had settled the matter in my mind that they were stragglers from the extreme north part of the internal regions; and could not but consider Capt. Ross as a very unfit person for an exploring expedition, or he would not have returned without ascertaining where those men came from, or how a great sea could exist to the northward of the ‘icy hoop,’ through fear of wintering in a climate where he saw men in existence who had passed all their lives there.
I remembered that these men so seen by Capt. Ross, saluted him by pulling their noses; and surely it is not surprising that men, inhabiting such different positions on this earth as the inside and outside of it, should differ so much as to consider that a compliment in the one place, which is deemed an insult in the other. Indeed it seemed to me a small thing, when I considered how widely the most enlightened of the externals differ in opinion upon the most simple propositions of religion, politics, and political economy.