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get leave for me to have a balloon made and inflated; were I once in the car of the balloon and Arowhena with me, I would chance the rest. I knew nothing about balloons, not even with what gas or gases they are filled; nor had I any knowledge of how to manage one, were a balloon provided for me, so that the difficulty and danger of the undertaking were well before me; in addition to this, I could not see how I should smuggle Arowhena into the car without her father and mother's knowledge; nevertheless, I resolved on overcoming every obstacle so far as mortal man could do so, and, strange as it may appear, I felt confident that I should succeed.

It happened that there had been a time of considerable drought, and that prayers for rain had been for weeks vainly offered in all the temples of the air god; my proposal, therefore, had been that I should go up into the sky in a balloon such as I had described to his majesty, and prevail upon the air god by means of a personal interview. I own that this proposition bordered upon the idolatrous, but I trust that I have sincerely repented of it; it was certainly the means of saving my life and Arowhena's, and will possibly lead to the conversion of the whole country.

The queen was delighted with the idea. I pointed out to her that no complicated machinery was wanted; nothing but a car, a few ropes, a large quantity of silk, and some gas of a kind which would be easily procurable could I consult some of the antiquarians who would be acquainted with the means employed by the ancients for the production of the lighter gases. The eagerness of her majesty to see so extraordinary a sight as the ascent of a human being into