They showed me several other equally excellent charts of the earth, exhibiting different portions of her surface. All of these were taken when she was in opposition, and therefore were all on the same scale. The committee showed great delight when I intimated my acquaintance with the details of the charts; inasmuch as this was a sufficiently clear proof of the place from which I came. I pronounced, as distinctly as I could, the names of the continents, seas, and principal islands, indicating, at the same time, by pointing them out, the localities named. All of these words they repeated as before; and the girl took them down in her rapid shorthand. The extraordinary quickness with which these three Hesperians acquired the language of Holland would not be easily credited by an inhabitant of the earth. Still it is a fact that, by the simple process of constantly conversing with me, and recording every word I spoke to them, in little more than a week all the three could speak our language with great fluency; while I, who had a great facility for learning foreign tongues, had acquired only a few words and elementary sentences of the Hesperian speech. This training in our language was by no means confined to the three members of the committee. Each morning the results of the day’s conversation were faithfully reported in the Hesperian journals from the girl’s memoranda; and the whole population of the city engaged with heart and soul in the study of Hollandish—plainly with the intention of putting themselves as quickly as possible in the way of getting an explanation of my astounding appearance among them. CHAPTER III. Concerning Physical Hesperography—Of the great Cloud-Screen, and its effect on Terrestrial Astronomy—Of the Chronic Equatorial Tornado, and of its extraordinary importance in the history of Hesperos—Of the Giant Mountains; and of the Flora and Fauna. To understand aright the nature of my intercourse with the Hesperians, I must needs give a short description of the structure and principal natural features of the surface of their planet; and likewise some account of the origin of the rational inhabitants thereof, and of the main points wherein their conditions of life differ from our own. All this knowledge was obtained by me, after the establishment, as I have explained, of a means of communication, in the course of many dialogues, not only with the three whom I had instructed in the Hollandish tongue, but also with many others, who had, with nearly equal quickness and ease, picked it up. But I think the reader will find it more convenient if I present him, in a connected discourse, this strange history which came to my knowledge only by degrees and in a rather roundabout way.