son, the primary regent of Quama,
nothing could surprise him more agreeably than this embassy; wherefore
his majesty joyfully greets the ambassador of the sun, and humbly
invites him to the capital city of the empire." I answered by expressing
my most humble thanks for the emperor's condescension, and immediately
repaired, with the ambassadors, to the capital. These lords had been
fourteen days on their journey to me, but assisted by my genius, the
return occupied only four days.
I had observed, during my residence in this country, that there were
vast numbers of horses running wild in the woods, and hence rather
burthensome than useful to the inhabitants. I showed to the people how
beneficial these animals might be made to them, and taught them how to
tame these noble creatures. At my suggestion and by my direction, a
number of them were caught and broken in, and thus I was enabled to
mount the ambassadors, and materially shorten the period of our journey.
No idea can be formed of the wonder and astonishment with which the
Quamites witnessed our entry into the city; some were so frightened that
they ran far into the country. The emperor himself dared not, in his
fear, come out from his tent, nor would he stir, until one of the
ambassadors, dismounting his horse, went in and explained the whole
secret to him. Shortly I was, with a great retinue, led into the
imperial tent. The old emperor was seated on a carpet surrounded by his
courtiers. On my entrance, I acknowledged, in the most polite terms, the
exceeding grace his imperial majesty had shown me; thereupon the emperor
arose and asked me what the king of the sun, and father of his family
proposed to do. Conceiving it politic, and even necessary not to
undeceive the Quamites in the opinion they themselves first entertained,
I answered: that his majesty, the king of the sun, had sent me down to
this land to refine, by good laws and salutary rules of life, the
uncultivated manners of the Quamites, and teach them the arts, through
which they might not only resist and repel their valiant and energetic
neighbors, but even extend the boundaries of their own empire; and
added, that I had been ordered to remain with them forever. The emperor
listened to this speech with much apparent pleasure, ordered a tent to
be immediately raised for me near his own, gave me fifteen servants, and
treated me less as a subject than as an intimate friend.
[Illustration]
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