shrugged his shoulders, and looked as pitiable as a prime minister with
a rebellious cabinet. At length he ventured to lift up his head; there
was not a wrinkle on the face of ocean; a halcyon fluttered over him,
and then scudded before his canoe, and gamesome porpoises were tumbling
at his side. The sky was cloudless, except in the direction to which he
was driving; but even as Popanilla observed, with some misgivings, the
mass of vapours which had there congregated, the great square and solid
black clouds drew off like curtains, and revealed to his entranced
vision a magnificent city rising out of the sea.

Tower, and dome, and arch, column, and spire, and obelisk, and lofty
terraces, and many-windowed palaces, rose in all directions from a mass
of building which appeared to him each instant to grow more huge, till
at length it seemed to occupy the whole horizon. The sun lent
additional lustre to the dazzling quays of white marble which apparently
surrounded this mighty city, and which rose immediately from the dark
blue waters. As the navigator drew nearer, he observed that in most
parts the quays were crowded with beings who, he trusted, were human,
and already the hum of multitudes broke upon his inexperienced ear: to
him a sound far more mysterious and far more exciting than the most
poetical of winds to the most wind of poets. On the right of this vast
city rose what was mistaken by Popanilla for an immense but leafless
forest; but more practical men than the Fantaisian Captain have been
equally confounded by the first sight of a million of masts.

The canoe cut its way with increased rapidity, and ere Popanilla had
recovered himself sufficiently to make even an ejaculation, he found
himself at the side of a quay. Some amphibious creatures, whom he
supposed to be mermen, immediately came to his assistance, rather stared
at his serpent-skin coat, and then helped him up the steps. Popanilla