"This metal, when separated and purified, has as great a tendency to
fly off from the earth, as a piece of gold or lead has to approach it.
After making a number of curious experiments with it, we bethought
ourselves of putting it to some use, and soon contrived, with the aid
of it, to make cars and ascend into the air. We were very secret in
these operations; for our unhappy country having then recently fallen
under the subjection of the British nation, we apprehended that if we
divulged our arcanum, they would not only fly away with all our treasures,
whether found in palace or pagoda, but also carry off the inhabitants,
to make them slaves in their colonies, as their government had not then
abolished the African slave trade.
"After various trials and many successive improvements, in which our
desires increased with our success, we determined to penetrate the
aerial void as far as we could, providing for that purpose an apparatus,
with which you will become better acquainted hereafter. In the course
of our experiments, we discovered that this same metal, which was repelled
from the earth, was in the same degree attracted towards the moon; for in
one of our excursions, still aiming to ascend higher than we had ever
done before, we were actually carried to that satellite; and if we had
not there fallen into a lake, and our machine had not been water-tight,
we must have been dashed to pieces or drowned.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41