late by the negroes, that the white people have no souls! However, we
were determined to attack them, and steering down our island upon them,
soon overwhelmed them: we saved as many of the white people as possible,
but pushed all the blacks into the water again. The poor creatures
we saved from slavery were so overjoyed, that they wept aloud through
gratitude, and we experienced every delightful sensation to think
what happiness we should shower upon their parents, their brothers and
sisters and children, by bringing them home safe, redeemed from slavery,
to the bosom of their native country.

Having happily arrived in England, I immediately laid a statement of
my voyage, &c., before the Privy Council, and entreated an immediate
assistance to travel into Africa, and, if possible, refit my former
machine, and take it along with the rest. Everything was instantly
granted to my satisfaction, and I received orders to get myself ready
for departure as soon as possible.

As the Emperor of China had sent a most curious animal as a present
to Europe, which was kept in the Tower, and it being of an enormous
stature, and capable of performing the voyage with _éclat_, she was
ordered to attend me. She was called Sphinx, and was one of the most
tremendous though magnificent figures I ever beheld. She was harnessed
with superb trappings to a large flat-bottomed boat, in which was placed
an edifice of wood, exactly resembling Westminster Hall. Two balloons
were placed over it, tackled by a number of ropes to the boat, to keep
up a proper equilibrium, and prevent it from overturning, or filling,
from the prodigious weight of the fabric.

The interior of the edifice was decorated with seats, in the form of
an amphitheatre, and crammed as full as it could hold with ladies and