"Forests and mountains on her spotted orb.

"But we see nothing in the interior of Africa, but what some compilers
of maps or geographers are fanciful enough to imagine. What a happy
event, therefore, should we not expect from a voyage of discovery and
colonisation undertaken in so magnificent a style as the present! what a
pride--what an acquisition to philosophy!"



CHAPTER XXV

_Count Gosamer thrown by Sphinx into the snow on the top of
Teneriffe--Gog and Magog conduct Sphinx for the rest of the voyage--The
Baron arrives at the Cape, and unites his former chariot, &c., to
his new retinue--Passes into Africa, proceeding from the Cape
northwards--Defeats a host of lions by a curious stratagem--Travels
through an immense desert--His whole company, chariot, &c., overwhelmed
by a whirlwind of sand--Extricates them, and arrives in a fertile
country._

The brave Count Gosamer, with a pair of hell-fire spurs on, riding upon
Sphinx, directed the whole retinue towards the Madeiras. But the Count
had no small share of an amiable vanity, and perceiving great multitudes
of people, Gascons, &c., assembled upon the French coast, he could not
refrain from showing some singular capers, such as they had never seen
before: but especially when he observed all the members of the National
Assembly extend themselves along the shore, as a piece of French
politeness, to honour this expedition, with Rousseau, Voltaire, and