A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper CylinderDe Mille, James
Philosophy
A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder
De Mille, James
Science fiction
How long I slept I do not know. My sleep was profound, yet disturbed
by troubled dreams, in which I lived over again all the eventful
scenes of the past; and these were all intermingled in the wildest
confusion. The cannibals beckoned to us from the peak, and we landed
between the two volcanoes. There the body of the dead sailor received
us, and afterward chased us to the boat. Then came snow and volcanic
eruptions, and we drifted amid icebergs and molten lava until we
entered an iron portal and plunged into darkness. Here there were vast
swimming monsters and burning orbs of fire and thunderous cataracts
falling from inconceivable heights, and the sweep of immeasurable
tides and the circling of infinite whirlpools; while in my ears there
rang the never-ending roar of remorseless waters that came after us,
with all their waves and billows rolling upon us. It was a dream in
which all the material terrors of the past were renewed; but these
were all as nothing when compared with a certain deep underlying
feeling that possessed my soul--a sense of loss irretrievable, an
expectation of impending doom, a drear and immitigable despair.
In the midst of this I awoke. It was with a sudden start, and I looked
all around in speechless bewilderment. The first thing of which I
was conscious was a great blaze of light--light so lately lost, and
supposed to be lost forever, but now filling all the universe--bright,
brilliant, glowing bringing hope and joy and gladness, with all the
splendor of deep blue skies and the multitudinous laughter of ocean
waves that danced and sparkled in the sun. I flung up my arms and
laughed aloud. Then I burst into tears, and falling on my knees,
I thanked the Almighty Ruler of the skies for this marvellous
deliverance.
Rising from my knees I looked around, and once more amazement
overwhelmed me. I saw a long line of mountains towering up to
immeasurable heights, their summits covered with eternal ice and
snow. There the sun blazed low in the sky, elevated but a few degrees
above the mountain crests, which gleamed in gold and purple under its
fiery rays. The sun seemed enlarged to unusual dimensions, and the
mountains ran away on every side like the segment of some infinite
circle. At the base of the mountains lay a land all green with
vegetation, where cultivated fields were visible, and vineyards and
orchards and groves, together with forests of palm and all manner
of trees of every variety of hue, which ran up the sides of the
mountains till they reached the limits of vegetation and the regions
of snow and ice.
Here in all directions there were unmistakable signs of human
life--the outlines of populous cities and busy towns and hamlets;
roads winding far away along the plain or up the mountain-sides, and
mighty works of industry in the shape of massive structures, terraced
slopes, long rows of arches, ponderous pyramids, and battlemented
walls.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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