No sooner was I upon the Ground, but I found myself extreme hungry; stepping then to the next Tree, I fastened my Engine and Ganzas thereto, and in great Haste fell to examining my Pockets for the Victuals I had reserved there; but to my great Surprize and Vexation, instead of Partridges and Capons, which I thought I had hoarded there, I found nothing but a Medley of dry Leaves, Goats Hair, Sheep or Goats Dung, Moss, and the like; my Canary-wine was turned, and stunk like Horse-piss: O the Villainy and Cheats of these cursed Spirits, whose Assistance if I had depended on, in what a Condition had I been! While I stood musing at this strange Metamorphosis, on a sudden I heard my Gansas fluttering behind me, and looking back, I spied them falling greedily upon a Shrub within the Reach of their Lines, whose Leaves they fed earnestly upon, whereas before I had never seen them eat any green Thing whatever; so stepping to the Shrub; I put a Leaf to my Mouth; the Taste was so excellent; that I cannot express it, and if I had not with Discretion moderated my Appetite, I should have forfeited thereon; yet it happened, to be a good Bait both for me and my Birds, when we had most Need of Refreshment.
Scarce had we ended our Banquet, when I saw myself surrounded with a strange kind of People both in Feature, Manners, and Apparel; their Stature was very different, but they Were generally twice as high as ours; their Shape and Countenance pleasant, and their Habit hardly to be described; for I never saw either Cloth, Silk, nor other Stuff, like that whereof their Cloths were made; neither can I possibly relate their Colour, they being in a manner all cloathed alike; it was neither Black, White, Yellow, Red nor Blue, nor any Colour composed of these: If you ask what was it then? I must tell you, it was a Colour never seen in our earthly World, and so neither to be described nor conceived by us; for as it is hard to make a Man born blind understand the Difference between Green and Blue, so neither can I decypher this Moon-colour, as having no Affinity with any I ever beheld; I can only say it was the most glorious and delightful that can be imagined, neither was any Thing more pleasant to me during my Stay there.
Being surprized at the Appearance of these People so suddenly and in such Accoutrements, I crossed myself, and cried out, Jesu Maria: No sooner was the Word Jesu pronounced, but Young and Old fell all on their Knees (whereat I not a little rejoiced) holding up their Hands on high, and repeating certain Words which I understood not; and relently rising again, one much taller than the rest came and kindly embraced me, and ordering, as I perceived, some of the rest to attend my Birds, he took me by the Hand, and led me to his Dwelling, down toward the Foot of the Hill, which was a Building so great and beautiful, as nothing in our World is comparable thereto; yet afterward I saw such as this seemed but a Cottage in respect of them, there was no Door about the House less than thirty Foot high, and twelve broad, the Rooms were forty or fifty Foot in Height, and answerable in Proportion neither could they be much less, the Master thereof being full twenty-eight high, and I suppose his Body would weigh twenty-five or thirty of ours: After I had rested with him about one of our Days, he led me five Leagues off to the Palace of the Prince of the Country, the Stateliness whereof I have not now Leisure to describe; this Prince was much taller than the former, and called (as near as I can by Letters declare it, for their Sounds are not perfectly to be expressed by our Characters) Pylonas, which in their Language is First or Chief, if it doth not rather denote his Authority and Dignity, as being the Principal Man in all those Parts; though yet there is one Supreme Monarch amongst them, much greater of Stature than he, commanding over all that whole World, having under him twenty-nine other Princes of great Power; and every one of these has twenty-four inferior Governors, whereof this Pylonas was one. The first Ancestor of this great Monarch came out of the Earth, as they relate, and by marrying the Heiress of that vast Monarchy obtaining the Government, left it to his Posterity, who have enjoyed it ever since, even forty thousand Moons, which is 3077 Years: His Name was Irdonozur, whose Heirs to this Day assume the same Name; he, they say, having continued there about four hundred Moons, and begot divers Children, returned (though by what Means they know not) to the Earth again. I doubt they have their Fables as well as we, since our Historians never mention any earthly Man to have been in that World before myself, and much less to have returned again. I cannot therefore but condemn this Tradition as false and romantick, though I found Learning was in great Esteem among them, and they seem to detest Lying and Falshood, which is there severely punished, and which may yield some Credit to their historical Narrations. Many of them live wonderful long, even beyond Belief, affirming to me, that some survived thirty thousand Moons, which is above a thousand Years, so that the Ages of three or four Men might easily reach to the Time of the first Irdonozur, and this is generally noted, that the taller People are of Stature, the more excellent are their Endowments of Mind, and the longer Time they live; for their Stature is very different, great Numbers not much exceeding ours, who seldom live above a thousand Moons, which is fourscore of our Years; these they account base, unworthy Creatures, but one Degree above brute Beasts, and employ in mean and servile Offices, calling them Bastards, Counterfeits or Changlings: Those whom they account true Natural Lunars or Moon Men, exceed ours generally thirty Times, both in Quantity of Body, and Length of Life, proportionable to the Quality of the Day in both Worlds, theirs containing almost thirty of our Days.
The manner of our Travel to the Palace of Pylonas was more strange and incredible than any thing we have related, for at our first setting forth there were delivered to each of us two Feather Fans, like those our Ladies in Spain cool themselves with in Summer: You must understand, that the Globe of the Moon has likewise an attractive Power, yet so much weaker than the Earth, that if a Man do but spring upward with all his Strength, as Dancers do in shewing their Tricks, he will be able to mount fifty or sixty Foot high; and being then above all Attraction from the Moon's Earth, he falls down no more, but by the Help of these Fans, as with Wings, they convey themselves in the Air in a short Space, (though not quite so swift as Birds) whither they please. In two hours Time (as I could guess) by the Help of these Fans, we were carried through the Air those five Leagues, in all about sixty Persons. Being arrived at the Palace of Pylonas, after our Conductor had declared what manner of Present he had brought, I was called in to him by his Attendants: By the Stateliness of his Palace, and the Reverence done him, I soon perceived his Greatness, and managed my Affairs in order to procure his favour accordingly; and having, as you may remember, a certain little Box or Casket of Jewels, the Remainder of those I brought from the East-Indies, before I was introduced I secretly took them out of my Pocket, and chusing some of each sort, I made them ready to be presented as I should think convenient.
I found him sitting in a magnificent Chair of State, with his Wife or Queen on one Hand, and his Eldest Son on the other, one attended by a Troop of Ladies, and the other of young Men, and all along the Side of the Room stood a great Number of handsome Personages, whereof scarce one was lower of Stature than Pylonas, whose Age they report is now one and twenty thousand Moons. At my Entrance I fell on my Knees, and taking out my Jewels, I presented to the King seven Stones of several Sorts, a Diamond, a Ruby, an Emerald, a Saphire, a Topaz and an Opal, which he accepted with Joy and Admiration. Then I offered the Queen and Prince some others, and designed to have bestowed divers more upon his Attendants; but Pylonas forbid them to accept any, supposing, as I heard, they were all I had, which he would have me reserve for Irdonozur his Sovereign: He then embraced me with much Endearedness, and enquired divers Things by Signs, which I answered in the same manner to the best of my Skill; which not contenting him, he delivered me to the Guard of 100 of his Giants as I may well call them, strictly charging them, that I should want nothing fit for me; that they should suffer none of the Dwarf Lunars, or little Moon Men, to come near me. That I should be instructed in their Language, and lastly, that they should by no Means impart to me the Knowledge of several Things by him specified, what they were I could never understand. It may be you long to know what Pylonas enquired of me: Why, what should it be but, whence I came, how I arrived there what was my Name and Business, with the like; to all which I answered as near the Truth as possible.
Being dismist, I was provided with all Necessaries as my Heart could wish, so that I seemed to be in a Paradise, the Pleasures whereof did not yet so transport me, but I was much concerned with the Thoughts of my Wise and Children, and still retaining some Hope that I might again return to them; I tended my Gansas daily with much Care, which yet had signified little, if other Men had not done more than I could: for now the Time came when of Necessity all People of our Stature, and myself like wise, must needs sleep thirteen or fourteen whole Days together; for by a Secret and irresistible Decree of Nature, when the Day begins to appear, and the Moon to be enlightened by the Sun Beams, which is in the first Quarter of the Moon, all People of our Stature inhabiting these Parts fall into a dead Sleep, and are not possibly to be awakened till the Sun set, and is withdrawn; for as Owls and Bats with us cannot endure the Light, so at the first Approach of Day we begin to be amazed therewith, and fall into a Slumber, which grows by Degrees into a dead Sleep till the Light be gone, which is in fourteen or fifteen Days, that is till the last Quarter. During the Sun's Absence, there is a twofold Light, one of the Sun, which I could not endure to behold, and another of the Earth: Now that of the Earth was at the Height, for when the Moon is at the Change, then is the Earth a full Moon to them, and as the Moon increaseth with us, so the Light of the Earth decreaseth with them. I found the Light, though the Sun was absent, equal to that with us in the Day when the Sun is clouded; but toward the Quarter it daily diminisheth, yet leaving still a competent Light, which seems very strange; though not so remarkable as what they there report, that in the other Hemisphere of the Moon, contrary to that I fell upon, where during half the Moon they see not the Sun, and the Earth never appears to them, they have yet a kind of Light, not unlike our Moon-Light, which it, seems the Nearness of the Stars, and other Planets that are at a far less Distance than from us, affords them.
You must understand, that of the true Lunars or Moon Men there are three Kinds, some a little taller than we, as perhaps ten or twelve foot high, these can endure the Day of the Moon, when the Earth shines but little, but not the Beams of both, and so then must be laid asleep: Others are twenty foot high or above, who can suffer all the Light both of the Earth and Sun. There are in a certain Island (the Mysteries whereof are carefully concealed) Men whose Stature is at least twenty-seven foot high: If any other come to land there in the Moon's Day time, they instantly fall asleep: This is called Insula Martini, and hath a particular Governor, who as they report is sixty-five thousand Moons old, which makes five thousand of our Years; His Name is said to be Hiruch, and he in a manner commands Irdonozur himself, especially in that Island out of which he never removes: There is another comes often thither, who they say is not above half his Age, that is about thirty-three thousand Moons, or two thousand six hundred of our Years, and he orders all Things through the Globe of the Moon in Matters of Religion, as absolutely as the Pope doth in any Part of Italy; I would fain have seen this Man, but was not permitted to come near him, his Name is Imozes.
Now let me settle myself to a long Night's Sleep, to which End my Attendants take Charge of my Birds, prepare my Lodging, and signify to me by Signs how I must order myself. It was then about the Middle of September, when I perceived the Air more clear than ordinary, and with the Increase of the Light I began to feel myself first dull and then heavy to Sleep, though I had not been lately disturbed of my Rest: At length I delivered myself into the Custody of this Sister of Death, whose Prisoner I was for almost a fortnight after, and then awaking, it is not to be believed how brisk and vigorous I found the faculties both of my Body and Mind; I then applied myself to learning the Language, which is the same throughout all the Regions of the Moon, yet not so wonderful, since I believe all the Earth of the Moon does not amount to the fortieth Part of our inhabited Earth, partly because the Globe of the Moon is far less, and besides the Sea or Ocean covers very nigh three Parts of four, whereas, the Land and Sea in our World may be judged of an equal Measure. Their Language is very difficult, since it hath no Affinity with any other I ever heard, and consists not so much of Words and Letters, as Tunes and strange Sounds which no Letters can express, for there are few Words but signify several Things, and are distinguished only by their Sounds, which are sung as it were in uttering; yea many Words consist of Tunes only, without Words: By Occasion whereof I find a Language may be framed, and easily learned, as copious as any other in the World only of Tunes, which is an Experiment worth searching after: Notwithstanding these Difficulties, within two Months I attained to such Knowledge therein, that I understood most Questions demanded of me, and with Signs and Words made reasonable Shift to utter my Mind; which Pylonas having Notice of, he oft-times sent for me, and was pleased to inform me of many Things my Guardians durst not disclose, though I must needs say I never found they abused me with an Untruth, but if I asked a Question they were unwilling to resolve, they would shake their Heads, and with a Spanish Shrug divert to some other Discourse.
After seven Months Time the great Irdonozur, making his Progress to a Place about two hundred Leagues from the Palace of Pylonas, sent for me, yet would not admit me into his Presence, but discoursed me through a Window, where I might hear him, and he hear and see me at Pleasure. I presented him the Remainder of my Jewels, which he thankfully accepted, saying, he would requite them with Gifts of a far more considerable Value. I stayed there above a Quarter of a Moon, when I was again sent back to Pylonas, for if we had stayed a Day or two longer the Sun would have overtaken us before we could have recovered our Home. The Gifts he bestowed on me were such, that a Man would part with Mountains of Gold to purchase; they were all Stones, nine only in Number, of three Sorts, one called Poleastis, another Machrus, and the third Ebelus, of each Sort three; the first are about the Bigness of an Hazle-nut, very like Jet, which among many other incredible Virtues hath this Property, that being once put in the fire they ever after retain their Heat, though without any outward Appearance, till quenched with some kind of Liquor, which no way endamages them, though heated and cooled therein a thousand Times; their Heat is so vehement, that it will make any Metal within a foot of it red hot, and being in a Chimney warms the Room as if a great fire were kindled therein. The Machrus is yet more precious, in Colour like a Topaz, so clear and resplendent, as though not above the Bigness of a Bean, yet being placed in the Night in the midst of a large Church, it makes all as light as if an hundred Lamps were hanged round; can any Man wish for more useful Properties in a Stone than these? Yet my Ebelus is so excellent, that it may be much preferred before them, yea prized above all the Diamonds, Sapphires, Rubies, and Emeralds that our World can afford. The Lunar Colour is so exceeding beautiful, that a Man would travel a thousand Leagues to behold it, the Shape is somewhat flat, of the Breadth of a Piece of Eight, and twice the Thickness, one Side is of a more orient Colour than the other, which being clapt to a Man's bare Skin, takes away all the Weight and Ponderousness of his Body, but turning the other Side, it adds force to the attractive Beams of the Earth either in this World or that, and makes the Body half as heavy again: Do you wonder now, why I should so overprize this Stone? Before you see me on Earth again, you will find I have Reason to value this invaluable Jewel. I enquired, whether they had not any kind of Jem, or other Means to make a Man invisible, which I judged a Thing of admirable Use, and could mention divers of our learned Men who had written to this Purpose; they answered, that if it were possible, yet they were sure Heaven would not suffer it to be revealed to us Creatures subject to so many Imperfections, and which might be easily abused to ill Purposes, and this was all I could get of them.
Now after it was known that Irdonozur the great Monarch had done me this Honour, it is strange how much all respected me more than before; my Guardians, who had been hitherto cautious in relating any thing of the Government of that World, grew now more open, so that from them and Pylonas together I understood many notable Particulars; as that in a thousand Years there is found neither Thief nor Whore-monger, for first there is no want of any thing necessary for the Use of Man, food growing every where without Labour, of all Sorts that can be desired. As for Cloths, Houses, or whatever else a Man may be supposed to want, it is provided by their Superiors, though not without some Labour, but yet so easy as if they did it for Pleasure: Again, their Females are all absolute Beauties, and by a secret Disposition of Nature, a Man there having once known a Woman never desires any other: Murther was never heard of amongst them, neither is it hardly possible to be committed, for there can be no Wound made but what is curable; yea they assured me, and for my Part I believe it, that though a Man's Head be cut off, yet if within three Moons it be joined to the Carcase again, and the Juice of a certain Herb there growing applied, it will be so consolidated, as the wounded Party shall be perfectly cured. But the chief Cause of their good Government is an excellent Disposition in the Nature of the People, so that all both Old and Young hate all manner of Vice, and live in such Love, Peace, and Amity, as it seems to be another Paradise: Though it is true likewise that some are of a better Disposition than others, which they discern immediately at their Birth; and because it is an inviolable Law amongst them that none shall be put to Death; therefore perceiving by their Stature or some other Signs, who are like to be of a wicked and debauched Humour, they send them, I know not by what Means, into the Earth, and change them for other Children, before they have either Opportunity or Ability to do amiss among them; but first, they say, they are fain to keep them there for some Time, till the Air of the Earth alters their Colour like ours. Their ordinary Vent for them is a certain high Hill in the North of America, whose People, I am apt to believe, are wholly descended from them, both in regard of their Colour, and their continual use of Tobacco, which the Lunars or Moon Men smoak exceedingly, the Place abounding much with Moisture, together with the Pleasure they take therein, and some other Respects too long to rehearse: Sometimes, though but seldom, they mistake their Aim, and fall upon Europe, Asia, or Africa. I remember some Years since I read certain Stories tending to confirm what is related by these Lunars, and especially one Chapter of Neubrigensis. Inigo Mondejar, in his Description of Nova Granata. Also Joseph Desia de Carana, in his History of Mexico, if my Memory fail not, recount what will make my Report more creditable; but I value not Testimonies.