dyd calls it the shrieking voices of the hundred
millions of Mehrikans who must have perished in similar weather.

_16th June_

It is many days since I have touched this journal. A hateful sickness
has been upon me, destroying all energy and courage. A sort of fever,
and yet my limbs were cold. I could not describe it if I would.

Nofuhl came into the cabin this evening with some of his metal plates
and discoursed upon them. He has no respect for the intellects of the
early Mehrikans. I thought for a moment I had caught him in a
contradiction, but he was right as usual. It was thus:

_Nofuhl._
They were great readers.

_Khan-li._
You have told us they had no literature. Were they great readers of
nothing?

_Nofuhl._
Verily, thou hast said it! Vast sheets of paper were published daily
in which all crimes were recorded in detail. The more revolting the
deed, the more minute the description. Horrors were their chief
delight. Scandals were drunk in with thirstful eyes. These chronicles
of crime and filth were issued by hundreds of thousands. There was
hardly a family in the land but had one.

_Khan-li._
And did this take the place of literature?

_Nofuhl._
Even so.

_20th June_

Once more we are on the sea; two days from Nhu-Yok. Our decision was
a sudden one. Nofuhl, in an evil moment, found among those accursed
plates a map of the country, and thereupon was seized with an
unreasoning desire to visit a town called "Washington." I wavered and
at last consented, foolishly I believe, for the crew are loud for
Persia. And this town is inland on a river. He says it was their
finest city, the seat of Government, the capital of the country.
Grip-til-lah swears he can find it if the map is truthful.

Ja-khaz still eats by himself.

This afternoon we reclined upon the deck, the _Zlotuhb_ drifting gently
in a southerly direction. Land could be seen on the starboard bow, a
faint strip along the western horizon.

It was about the middle of the afternoon, while passing the ruins of a
gigantic tower--perhaps a lighthouse--that Nofuhl, of a sudden,
clambered hastily to his feet and looked about him. Then he called to
Grip-til-lah, asking how many leagues we were from the harbor of
Nhu-Yok. Grip-til-lah's reply I forget, but it filled the old man with
a gentle excitement. I observed an unwonted sparkle in his eyes, also
a quivering of the fingers as he pointed to the ocean around about,
and excl