Atalantis Major

by Daniel Defoe

It might be very useful to our Readers, and perhaps something instructing might be gathered from it, with respect to the Affairs of Europe at this Time, to give some Account here of the Success of these strange Proceedings; what Figure these People made, when they came to Court, how they behav'd themselves when they came into the great Council, how they were made Tools there to the Politicians of those Times, even to act against their Interest, their Country, their own Designs.

In doing this, it would appear, How some of the Sixteen, more particularly known to be in the Tartarian Interest, and who had all along declared themselves for the Person and Title of the pretending Prince, who, as is noted before, put in a Claim to the Succession of the Throne: How these, I say, went up to the great Council, wheedled by the Subtilties of Greeniccio, and his Agents, to believe seriously that they went up directly to declare his Title; that they should be the Men that should have the Honour to declare his Right in the great Council of the Nobility; and that he should for the future own his Restoration, his Glory, and his Crown, to their Loyalty and steddy acting for him. This, they did not doubt, should tend not to their Honour only, but to the raising their decay'd Fortunes, for they were miserably Poor; since he could do no less than confer the greatest Trusts upon Persons who had with so much Fidelity acted for his Glory and Interest.

It would also to the eternal Shame and Disappointment of the Atalantic Jacobites, (if I may so call them) necessarily follow, that the History of their Conduct should come in at the same time to be considered, viz. How just the contrary to all this, and against the very Nature of the Thing they were obliged, even among the very first of their Transactings in their Publick Station, as Members of the great Council aforesaid, to appear in a Publick Address to the Soveraign of the Country, in which they were brought in recognizing Her just Title to Reign, (which they in their Hearts abhorr'd) promising to Stand by and Defend that Title with all their Might, (which they had hoped to see overthrown) engaging to assist Her to the utmost, against that very pretending Claimant as above, (who they Reverence as their lawful Prince) and to carry on the War with Vigour against the Tartarian Emperor (that very Prince on whose Power they depended for the carrying on their Designs).

Had any British-Man of Sense, that understands the Language of the Countenance, but seen the Astonishment, the Chagrin, the Vexation and Anguish of Soul, that appear'd on the Faces of these Atalantic Noblemen, at this surprizing Event; how they gnashed their Teeth for Anger, and curst the Hour that ever they were Members of this grand Council; how they Bann'd, (an Atalantis Word used there, for what we call Swearing and Damning in our Country;) how they raged at Greenwiccio, and the Lord of the Isles, who they said had Betray'd them; and how strangely they look'd, upon the solemn Occasion of presenting this Address to their Soveraign: I say, could their Countenances but have been read by any in our Country, they would have taken them for Furies rather than Men, or for Men under some Frenzy, ridden with the Night-Mare, or scared with some Apparition.

It was not less odd, to see the Conduct of Greeniccio; for tho' he had not less Mischief in his Heart, yet it was of another Kind; and tho' he had not the same View of the Succession, nor perhaps was directly in the Tartarian Interest, and therefore shew'd no Pity, or Sympathy with the Mortifications of the other, yet he met with Disappointments equally perplexing, and which made him heartily repent the length he had gone; but as it was in his Nature to be rash, it was impossible to prevent his being disappointed almost in every Thing he went about: For it is in Atalantis Major just as it is in other Parts of the World, viz. That rash headstrong unthinking Tempers, generally precipitate themselves into innumerable Mischiefs, which Prudence and Patience would evite and prevent; and also, that these furious rash People, as they are hot and impatient under those Mischiefs when they are surprised with them, so they are not always the best able to extricate and deliver themselves.

This will necessarily lead us to a long History of the Disappointments he met with:

1. In his Project of charging and impeaching his General, and the great Testador, or —— of the Nations Treasure, which he could never, either bring Crime enough to justifie, or Friends enough to joyn in, and make it terrible.

2. How he was disappointed in his ambitious Views of being made General against the Tartarians; whereas, he had on the contrary, the Mortification, to see the great Commander continu'd, with an addition of Generallissimo to his Titles of Command; and himself, like what we used to call in England, being Kick'd up Stairs, sent out of the Way with a Feather in his Cap, and the Title of General, to carry on a remote Unfortunate, and never-to-be Successful War in Japan, and the Lord knows where, among Barbarians and Savages.

This was not all; When upon his embracing this Title, which his Temper (naturally Ambitious) jumpt at, and eagerly closed with, he began to choose Officers, name Regiments, and draw out Forces to form the Army he was to Command, he found the new Generalissimo had supplanted him there too; for he had not only prevailed with the Queen of the Country, not to draw away any of the old Troops then establish'd for the Tartarian War, of which this Gew-Gaw-General fancied to himself he should form his Army: But the Generalissimo obtain'd, That the best Troops which were remaining in Atalantis Major, should be sent over to strengthen the Army against the Tartars: So that this new General was likely to go away to Japan without any Army, but such Troops as her Atalantic Majesty and Her Allies had hired from the Emperor of China, and such other People; and he had none but Strangers, Barbarians and Mercenaries to Command.

It is true, That his Design of drawing off the Troops from the Tartarian War, to carry on a Wild-Goose War in the remotest Parts of Japan, was like the rest of his Schemes, so inconsistent, so destructive to the general Design of the War, and would in all its probable Circumstances be so dangerous to the true Interest of Atalantis Major, That notwithstanding some had persuaded the Government to a New Scheme, and that the War was to be pushed on ESPECIALLY in Japan (a Thing which perhaps some encouraged at first, on purpose to draw him in to accept of that Command, which many of inferiour Rank to him had declin'd) yet when they came to look nearer into the Thing, and to see the fatal Prospect of weakning the Forces on the Tartarian side, while the Emperor of Tartary at the same Time was vigilant and forward in encreasing his Preparations, they soon found the Representations of the Generalissimo had such Weight in them, and were founded so much upon their general Good, that they thought fit to alter their Measures.