SURGEON I am of a different opinion; he is quite sane, and depends more
upon the scent of his dog than he will upon the judgment of all the
officers on board; he will certainly lose, and he richly merits it.
CAPTAIN Such a wager cannot be fair on my side; however, I'll take him
up, if I return his money afterwards.
During the above conversation Tray continued in the same situation, and
confirmed me still more in my former opinion. I proposed the wager a
second time, it was then accepted.
Done! and done! were scarcely said on both sides, when some sailors who
were fishing in the long-boat, which was made fast to the stern of the
ship, harpooned an exceeding large shark, which they brought on board
and began to cut up for the purpose of barrelling the oil, when, behold,
they found no less than _six brace of live partridges_ in this animal's
stomach!
They had been so long in that situation, that one of the hens was
sitting upon four eggs, and a fifth was hatching when the shark was
opened!!! This young bird we brought up by placing it with a litter of
kittens that came into the world a few minutes before! The old cat was
as fond of it as of any of her own four-legged progeny, and made herself
very unhappy, when it flew out of her reach, till it returned again. As
to the other partridges, there were four hens amongst them; one or more
were, during the voyage, constantly sitting, and consequently we had
plenty of game at the captain's table; and in gratitude to poor Tray
(for being a means of winning one hundred guineas) I ordered him the
bones daily, and sometimes a whole bird.
CHAPTER XVIII
A SECOND TRIP TO THE MOON.
_A second visit (but an accidental one) to the moon--The ship driven by
a whirlwind a thousand leagues above the surface of the water, where a
new atmosphere meets them and carries them into a capacious harbour in
the moon--A description of the inhabitants, and their manner of coming
into the lunarian world--Animals, customs, weapons of war, wine,
vegetables, &c._
I have already informed you of one trip I made to the moon, in search
of my silver hatchet; I afterwards made another in a much pleasanter
manner, and stayed in it long enough to take notice of several things,
which I will endeavour to describe as accurately as my memory will
permit.
I went on a voyage of discovery at the request of a distant relation,
who had a strange notion that there were people to be found equal in
magnitude to those described by Gulliver in the empire of BROBDIGNAG.
For my part I always treated that account as fabulous: however, to
oblige him, for he had made me his heir, I undertook it, and sailed
for the South seas, where we arrived without meeting with anything
remarkable, except some flying men and women who were playing at
leap-frog, and dancing minuets in the air.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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