Chapter 15

AN ARRIVAL--FORMS OF RECEPTION--SEVERAL NEW CHRISTENINGS--AN
OFFICIAL DOCUMENT, AND TERRA FIRMA.

It is always agreeable to arrive safe, at the end of a long,
fatiguing, and hazardous journey. But the pleasure is considerably
augmented when the visit is paid to a novel region, with a steam-
climate, and which is peopled by a new species. My own satisfaction,
too was coupled with the reflection that I had been of real service
to four very interesting and well-bred strangers, who had been cast,
by an adverse fortune, into the hands of humanity, and who owed to
me a boon far more precious than life itself--a restoration to their
natural and acquired rights, their proper stations in society, and
sacred liberty! The reader will judge, therefore, with what inward
self-congratulation I now received the acknowledgments of the whole
monikin party, and listened to their most solemn protestations ever
to consider, not only all they might jointly and severally possess
in the way of estates and dignities, at my entire disposal, but
their persons as my slaves. Of course, I made as light as possible
of any little service I might have done them, protesting in my turn,
that I looked upon the whole affair more in the light of a party of
pleasure than a tax, reminding them that I had not only obtained an
insight into a new philosophy, but that I was already, thanks to the
decimal system, a tolerable proficient in their ancient and learned
language. These civilities were scarcely well over, before we were
boarded by the boat of the port-captain.

The arrival of a human ship was an event likely to create excitement
in a monikin country; and as our approach had been witnessed for
several hours, preparations had been made to give us a proper
reception. The section of the academy to whom is committed the
custody of the "Science of Indications," was hastily assembled by
order of the king, who, by the way, never speaks except through the
mouth of his oldest male first cousin, who, by the fundamental laws
of the realm, is held responsible for all his official acts (in
private, the king is allowed almost as many privileges as any other
monikin), and who, as is due to him in simple justice, is permitted
to exercise, in a public point of view, the functions of the eyes,
ears, nose, conscience, and tail of the monarch. The savans were
active, and as they proceeded with method, and on well-established
principles, their report was quickly made. It contained, as we
afterwards understood, seven sheets of premises, eleven of argument,
sixteen of conjecture, and two lines of deduction. This heavy draft
on the monikin intellect was duly achieved by dividing the work into
as many parts as there were members of the section