which method it was well roasted in about two hours. This has been my
food ever since." Here he paused, and seemed lost in viewing the objects
about him. When I told him the buildings before us were the Grand
Seignior's Seraglio at Constantinople, he seemed exceedingly affected,
as he had supposed himself in a very different situation. "The cause,"
added he, "of my long flight, was owing to the failure of a string which
was fixed to a valve in the balloon, intended to let out the inflammable
air; and if it had not been fired at, and rent in the manner before
mentioned, I might, like Mahomet, have been suspended between heaven and
earth till doomsday."

The Grand Seignior, to whom I was introduced by the Imperial, Russian,
and French ambassadors, employed me to negotiate a matter of great
importance at Grand Cairo, and which was of such a nature that it must
ever remain a secret.

I went there in great state by land; where, having completed the
business, I dismissed almost all my attendants, and returned like a
private gentleman; the weather was delightful, and that famous river the
Nile was beautiful beyond all description; in short, I was tempted to
hire a barge to descend by water to Alexandria. On the third day of my
voyage the river began to rise most amazingly (you have all heard, I
presume, of the annual overflowing of the Nile), and on the next day it
spread the whole country for many leagues on each side! On the fifth, at
sunrise, my barge became entangled with what I at first took for shrubs,
but as the light became stronger I found myself surrounded by almonds,
which were perfectly ripe, and in the highest perfection. Upon plumbing
with a line my people found we were at least sixty feet from the ground,
and unable to advance or retreat. At about eight or nine o'clock,
as near as I could judge by the altitude of the sun, the wind rose