then you may hope for a settlement after your toils, and in that place
you may found your first city.' Here was that famine of which he
spoke. Our calamities are now at an end. Let us, then, with the first
light of to-morrow's sun, explore this country, ascertain who are its
inhabitants, and where their cities are."

Next day, when Aeneas learned what country he was in, and the name of
its king, he sent ambassadors--a hundred of his chiefs--to wait on
Latinus and beg his friendship and assistance, furnishing them with
costly gifts for the king. The chiefs hastened on their mission to
Latinus, and Aeneas meanwhile began to mark out the boundaries of a
new city.

When the Trojan ambassadors reached Lau-ren-tum, the capital of
Latium, they were admitted to the royal palace and brought into the
presence of the king, who was seated on his throne--a magnificent
structure raised aloft on a hundred columns, around which were
numerous statues of the king's ancestors, carved in cedar wood.
Latinus, after civilly greeting the strangers, bade them say for
what purpose they had come to Italy; whether they had landed in his
country because of having missed their course at sea, or through
stress of weather. He added that whatever was the object of their
coming, they should receive kind treatment from him and his people.

To these friendly words Ilioneus, speaking for the Trojans, replied
that it was no storm that sent them to Italy. "Willingly and with
design," said he, "have we come to your shores, O king, after having
been expelled from a kingdom once the most powerful under the sun. Our
race is derived from Jupiter himself, and our chief, Aeneas, descended
from the gods, has sent us to your court. All the world has heard of