Symzonia: Voyage of DiscoverySeaborn, Adam, Captain
Science
Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery
Seaborn, Adam, Captain
Science fiction; Voyages, Imaginary
Albicore endeavoured to account for the circumstance of the oysters
sent on board having all been opened, and the soft part taken off by
the Symzonians, by supposing that they did it to preserve the pearls
for their own use; but it appeared to me to have been done because
the impure part is not considered by them fit for food.
On the 13th of August, we put to sea. Surui accompanied us until we
were quite out of sight of land, with a vessel in company to take
him back. On parting with this excellent Symzonian, I presented him
with a handsome gold watch, and a number of instruments and useful
articles. He exhorted me to improve the instruction I had received
while in his country, and to endeavour to imitate the morals and habits
of the internals, as the only course by which I could advance my own
happiness, and render myself better, and more capable of promoting
the real welfare of my fellow-mortals. He also earnestly entreated
me to warn my countrymen not to approach the coasts of Symzonia in
expectation of being allowed any intercourse or traffic, whilst they
remained besotted in vice and iniquity, the Best Man in council having
decided, out of regard to the purity of the nation, that the engines
of defence should be used to prevent such contamination.
We found no difficulty in making our passage to Token Island in
twenty-one days, Surui having given me a particular account of the
prevailing winds and currents, and the course to take to reach that
island with the greatest expedition.
Here it may be well to explain the cause of the astonishing velocity of
the Symzonian vessels, which enabled the one we had seen on approaching
the coast to avoid us so easily. It appears that the Symzonians,
in ancient times, apprehensive that the Belzubians might send armed
ships to the coast to capture their vessels and carry away their
people, devised a plan for accelerating their motion, by means of a
number of tubes which perforated the after part of the vessel under
water, through which air was forced with extreme violence by the
agency of a curious engine, of which I could not obtain a particular
description. This rush of air against the water forces the vessel
forward with amazing rapidity. Every vessel going far from the coast
must be furnished with one of these engines, but they are used only
on emergencies.
The wreck of the vessel I had seen on Token Island was not of Symzonian
construction, and the metal with which it was fastened was unknown in
that country. It was the opinion of the Wise men that it must have
been of Belzubian origin, for that people sometimes extended their
voyages to Token Island to obtain turtles, which they eat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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