n that he was
obliged to purchase some large earthen jars, and form a raft upon
them to take over himself and followers. While preparing his raft,
which took a whole day, he heard that from five to ten persons were
drowned, in attempting to cross this little river, every year, and
that people were often detained upon the bank for four or five days
together. He resolved to save people from all this evil; and as soon
as he got home set about building this bridge, and got it ready
before the next rains. It is a substantial work, with three good
arches. About two miles on this side of the bridge he pointed out to
me the single tree, near a mango-grove, where some eighteen or twenty
years ago he overtook a large balloon, which the King, Nuseer-od Deen
Hyder, had got made in the Dilkosha Park at Lucknow. It was made, he
tells me, by a tall and slender young English gentleman, who visited
Lucknow, with his uncle, for the special purpose of constructing and
ascending in this machine. "When it was all ready, sir, the young man
got into a small boat that was suspended under it, taking with him a
gun and some artificial fish. We asked him what he intended to do
with a gun in the clouds; and he told us, that in the sky he was in
danger of meeting large birds that might hurt the balloon, and the
gun was necessary to frighten them off. As the balloon began to
ascend the old gentleman's eyes filled with tears, and I asked him
why. He told me, that this young man's father had fallen into the
sea, and been drowned; and he was always afraid, when the son went
up, that he might never see him alive again.

"The King was sitting at the window in the upper story of the
Dilkosha house, with some English gentlemen, when the balloon passed
up close by, and the gentleman took off his hat and bowed gracefully
as he passed, at which the King seemed much pleased. I commanded a
regiment of Dragoons, and the King told me to take a party of my
boldest and best-mounted men and follow the balloon. I selected
seventeen, and we were all ready in our saddles. The balloon went
straight up, and we lost sight of the man and the boat in which he
sat. The machine, though it was sixty feet long, including boat and
all, and twelve feet wide, seemed at last to be no larger than a
small water-jug. Below we had no wind, but we soon saw the balloon
driven by an upper current to the eastward, along the Fyzabad road.
We followed as fast as the horses could carry us, c