having cut a canal across the
isthmus, returns to England._

"My friends, and very learned and profound Judiciarii," said I, "be not
disheartened that Wauwau has escaped from you at present: persevere, and
we shall yet succeed. You should never despair, Munchausen being your
general; and therefore be brave, be courageous, and fortune shall second
your endeavours. Let us advance undaunted in pursuit, and follow the
fierce Wauwau even three times round the globe, until we entrap her."

My words filled them with confidence and valour, and they unanimously
agreed to continue the chase. We penetrated the frightful deserts
and gloomy woods of America, beyond the source of the Ohio, through
countries utterly unknown before. I frequently took the diversion of
shooting in the woods, and one day that I happened with three attendants
to wander far from our troop, we were suddenly set upon by a number of
savages. As we had expended our powder and shot, and happened to have
no side-arms, it was in vain to make any resistance against hundreds
of enemies. In short, they bound us, and made us walk before them to
a gloomy cavern in a rock, where they feasted upon what game they had
killed, but which not being sufficient, they took my three unfortunate
companions and myself, and scalped us. The pain of losing the flesh from
my head was most horrible; it made me leap in agonies, and roar like
a bull. They then tied us to stakes, and making great fires around us,
began to dance in a circle, singing with much distortion and barbarity,
and at times putting the palms of their hands to their mouths, set up
the war-whoop. As they had on that day also made a great prize of some
wine and spirits belonging to our troop, these barbarians, finding it
delicious, and unconscious of its intoxicating quality, began to drink
it in profusion, while they beheld us roasting, and in a very short
time they were all completely drunk, and fell asleep around the fires.
Perceiving some hopes, I used most astonishing efforts to extricate
myself from the cords which I was tied, and at length succeeded. I
immediately unbound my companions, and though half roasted, they still
had power enough to walk. We sought about for the flesh that had been
taken off our heads, and having found the scalps, we immediately adapted
them to our bloody heads, sticking them on with a kind of glue of a
sovereign quality, that flows from a tree in that country, and the parts
united and