Читать книгу The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen - Rudolf Raspe - Страница 10

_Adventures in Turkey, and upon the river Nile – Sees a balloon

over Constantinople; shoots at, and brings it down; finds a French

experimental philosopher suspended from it – Goes on an embassy to Grand

Cairo, and returns upon the Nile, where he is thrown into an unexpected

situation, and detained six weeks._

When I was in the service of the Turks I frequently amused myself in a

pleasure-barge on the Marmora, which commands a view of the whole city

of Constantinople, including the Grand Seignior’s Seraglio. One morning,

as I was admiring the beauty and serenity of the sky, I observed a

globular substance in the air, which appeared to be about the size of a

twelve-inch globe, with somewhat suspended from it. I immediately took

up my largest and longest barrel fowling-piece, which I never travel or

make even an excursion without, if I can help it; I charged with a ball,

and fired at the globe, but to no purpose, the object being at too great

a distance. I then put in a double quantity of powder, and five or six

balls: this second attempt succeeded; all the balls took effect, and

tore one side open, and brought it down. Judge my surprise when a most

elegant gilt car, with a man in it, and part of a sheep which seemed to

have been roasted, fell within two yards of me. When my astonishment

had in some degree subsided, I ordered my people to row close to this

strange aërial traveller.

I took him on board my barge (he was a native of France): he was much

indisposed from his sudden fall into the sea, and incapable of speaking;

after some time, however, he recovered, and gave the following account

of himself, viz.: «About seven or eight days since, I cannot tell which,

for I have lost my reckoning, having been most of the time where the sun

never sets, I ascended from the Land’s End in Cornwall, in the island of

Great Britain, in the car from which I have been just taken, suspended

from a very large balloon, and took a sheep with me to try atmospheric

experiments upon: unfortunately, the wind changed within ten minutes

after my ascent, and instead of driving towards Exeter, where I intended

to land, I was driven towards the sea, over which I suppose I have

continued ever since, but much too high to make observations.

«The calls of hunger were so pressing, that the intended experiments

upon heat and respiration gave way to them. I was obliged, on the third

day, to kill the sheep for food; and being at that time infinitely above

the moon, and for upwards of sixteen hours after so very near the sun

that it scorched my eyebrows, I placed the carcase, taking care to skin

it first, in that part of the car where the sun had sufficient power,

or, in other words, where the balloon did not shade it from the sun, by

which method it was well roasted in about two hours. This has been my

food ever since.» Here he paused, and seemed lost in viewing the objects

about him. When I told him the buildings before us were the Grand

Seignior’s Seraglio at Constantinople, he seemed exceedingly affected,

as he had supposed himself in a very different situation. «The cause,»

added he, «of my long flight, was owing to the failure of a string which

was fixed to a valve in the balloon, intended to let out the inflammable

air; and if it had not been fired at, and rent in the manner before

mentioned, I might, like Mahomet, have been suspended between heaven and

earth till doomsday.»

The Grand Seignior, to whom I was introduced by the Imperial, Russian,

and French ambassadors, employed me to negotiate a matter of great

importance at Grand Cairo, and which was of such a nature that it must

ever remain a secret.

I went there in great state by land; where, having completed the

business, I dismissed almost all my attendants, and returned like a

private gentleman; the weather was delightful, and that famous river the

Nile was beautiful beyond all description; in short, I was tempted to

hire a barge to descend by water to Alexandria. On the third day of my

voyage the river began to rise most amazingly (you have all heard, I

presume, of the annual overflowing of the Nile), and on the next day it

spread the whole country for many leagues on each side! On the fifth, at

sunrise, my barge became entangled with what I at first took for shrubs,

but as the light became stronger I found myself surrounded by almonds,

which were perfectly ripe, and in the highest perfection. Upon plumbing

with a line my people found we were at least sixty feet from the ground,

and unable to advance or retreat. At about eight or nine o’clock,

as near as I could judge by the altitude of the sun, the wind rose

suddenly, and canted our barge on one side: here she filled, and I saw

no more of her for some time. Fortunately we all saved ourselves (six

men and two boys) by clinging to the tree, the boughs of which were

equal to our weight, though not to that of the barge: in this situation

we continued six weeks and three days, living upon the almonds; I need

not inform you we had plenty of water. On the forty-second day of

our distress the water fell as rapidly as it had risen, and on the

forty-sixth we were able to venture down upon _terra firma_. Our barge

was the first pleasing object we saw, about two hundred yards from the

spot where she sunk. After drying everything that was useful by the heat

of the sun, and loading ourselves with necessaries from the stores on

board, we set out to recover our lost ground, and found, by the nearest

calculation, we had been carried over garden-walls, and a variety of

enclosures, above one hundred and fifty miles. In four days, after a

very tiresome journey on foot, with thin shoes, we reached the river,

which was now confined to its banks, related our adventures to a boy,

who kindly accommodated all our wants, and sent us forward in a barge

of his own. In six days more we arrived at Alexandria, where we

took shipping for Constantinople. I was received kindly by the Grand

Seignior, and had the honour of seeing the Seraglio, to which his

highness introduced me himself.