“Sick and despairing from the constant recurrence of murderous acts of despoliation, we at last reached, in returning, a cluster of islands in the western ocean to the northward of our point of arrival. On the largest island we found a hardy species of falcon, and, with the lure of our own, obtained four. After a few days’ training of our transport addition we returned to the island where we first landed. Anxious to return to our people, and the cheering welcome of loving affection, we only tarried upon the island a sufficient time to accustom our newly acquired birds to devour their food while sustained by the parachute and their wings in mid-rest. Starting, homeward bound, on the morning of the sixtieth sun from the date of our departure from Maniculæ, we reached it again on the third day with the first notes of the evening anthem of thanksgiving, in which we gratefully joined in our descent to perch.
“Some days were occupied in the public rehearsal of the events and discoveries transpiring in the progress of our voyage; the resulting issue proving a source of congratulation, nathless, our disappointment from the unfavorable prospect afforded for an affectionate reception by the animalculan residents of the many countries over which we passed, from the effect of giga example. After many repetitions of the voyage, it was decided that colonization in the chief cities of Europe and Asia offered the only means for the effectual regeneration of the animalculan races for a happy appreciation of our exampled resources of loving affection. When the proposition for colonistic volunteers was proclaimed it received such a general sympathetic prompting of affectionate obligation, that every Manatitlan held himself and family in readiness for the service. As it was necessary, for self-defense, to have a majority of giantescoes and mediums, to overawe treacherous designs, the required number for colonizing Rome, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, were obtained by lot. When, on the eve of departure, the Dosch advised them to live apart from the natives of the cities, and in self dependence upon their own exertions for support; but to receive all healthy children of the required age, placed at their disposal for the Manatitlan term of education. The emigrants numbered among their volunteers representatives of all the mechanical branches of artisan labor, and especially those well instructed in the departments of indestructible house building and defensible vestments. So that little fear was entertained for their safety, as they could with ease repel the largest armies of tits that could be mustered. But their chief reliance was upon a sturdy adherence to their native habits and customs, yet ever open for the reciprocation of affectionate goodness. They were also admonished to make all possible application for the speedy acquisition of lingual idioms spoken in the different countries of their sojourn for future availment. Also, whenever favorable opportunity offered for the cultivation of giga goodness, to use their privilege of auramentation and thought substitution for encouragement and fruition. These general directions were improvised more for encouragement than from actual knowledge of the process best adapted for the controversion of habits and customs opposed to affectionate association and self-government.
“The first appearance of the Manatitlans in the cities of their destination attracted universal awe and curiosity on the part of the resident animalculan tits; for but few of the natives reached in stature the medium size. Their sudden and mysterious advent, gigantic size, quiet demeanor, and the great affection that they manifested towards each other, and in all the relations of life, proved a source of emulous wonder and admiration with the good, and a rankling, envious source of disdain to the evil minded.
“Selecting their sites for residence from the advantages of inaccessibility to giga approach, arable soil, and capabilities for irrigation, their habitations were quickly constructed, with a cleanly elegance of adornment that added a new element of wonder to the lazy imaginations of instinct, in the superstitious belief that they were visitors under the patronage of divine agency. With these introductory advantages, which the colonists disclaimed to be other than those within the reach of all grades of mortality, which their appearance and vocation were intended to impart, the schools were organized, and flooded to overflowing with applications for admission. The monthly visitations of the children’s parents confirmed the belief that mission was under the special direction of the Godhead.
“The unselfish warmth of their children’s affection opened to their view a source of realized happiness that truly bespoke the impressions of immortality, from the continued joy imparted in anticipation of renewal. The reputation of our advent, from the representative example of our neophytes, soon extended our influence to remote animalculan dependencies, so that the extension of our colonistic schools well nigh drained Manatitla of its effective resources of vitality. In the course of a few centuries, dating from the Manatitlan colonistic advent in the countries of the eastern continent, the system of education introduced had been generally adopted, under our supervision, by the animalculan races; notwithstanding the instinctive opposition of the chivalric portion, who followed the ancestral prestige derived from the preferred imitation of giga military school organizations, designed for the classical attraction of the senses with tinsel display, and ‘glorious’ din of martial music.
“Meanwhile your Heraclean ancestors had completed their third wall of circumvallation, and had extended their predatory excursions to the nether ocean beyond the dominions of the Yunka Machicas (Alta Peruvians) into those under the rule of Mauna Chusoes (children of the sun), whose women were esteemed very beautiful, being compared by a Heraclean chronicler of the period, ‘to all that was lovely in person, with a complexion that blended upon a surface of white, the reflected rays of burnished copper and gold.’ This comparison conveys the rich expression of metallic voluptuousness so much coveted by your Roman ancestry. These ravishing toys of passion heralded the end. Your immediate ancestors had obtained an asylum in your present City of the Falls. ‘The end came and with it our hopes of communication with our colonies beyond the ocean.’
“Although aware of the approaching catastrophe, we had supposed the falcons would be spared, but the Indians included everything living in the sum of their hatred that had contributed in any way to the oppressive pleasures of their taskmasters, unfortunately including all but eight of the falcons in the massacre, sacrificing with them some of our best volantaphs. The eight were employed in transporting our Mouthpat neighbors to Rome, Gaul, and Iberian Asturias; but it was hard to keep in advance of their reproductive tendencies with so small a fleet.
“There was, however, a slight improvement in getting rid of the old stock, but the Dosch little thought of the possible injurious effect the Mouthpats were likely to exert in retarding the progressive prosperity of our colonists. But when, in the course of a few years they were deprived of their last falcon, the Manatitlans were led by the troublesome dispositions of their neighbors to reflect upon the evil ingraft they had imposed upon the labors of their people abroad. This source of anxiety has been so greatly magnified in the course of centuries which have passed since the loss of our last falcon, that, in our distress, we now appeal to your suffering sympathies for aid in reclaiming those of the descendants of our carrier breed who have, from ancestral habits of association with your race, made their eryemews within the circuit of your cinctus walls. In like return, when your sons and daughters have redeemed for us the means of more safe and long sustained flight, we shall be better able to render you service against your enemies.”
Indegatus. “I have listened to my son’s transmission of your request, and we will thankfully comply with your desire!”
Giganteo. “That you may be enabled to effect the good I contemplate, it will be necessary for you to restrict your confidence to those of your family who have arrived at the understanding age of discretion. For with your people’s knowledge of our existence and communication with you, our efforts would be rendered void.”