President of Council now got more frightened than the Managers. He was
one of those men who think that the world can be saved by writing a
pamphlet. A pamphlet accordingly appeared upon the subject of the new
colony. The writer showed that the debateable land was the most
valuable acquisition ever attained by a nation famous for their
acquisitions; that there was a spring of water in the middle of the rock
of a remarkable freshness, and which was never dry except during the
summer and the earlier winter months; that all our outward-bound ships
would experience infinite benefit from this fresh water; that the scurvy
would therefore disappear from the service; and that the naval victories
which the Vraibleusians would gain in future wars would consequently be
occasioned by the present colony. No one could mistake the felicitous
reasoning of the author of 'The Present State of the Western Republics!'

About this time Popanilla fell ill. He lost his appetite and his
spirits, and his digestion was sadly disordered. His friends
endeavoured to console him by telling him that dyspepsia was the
national disease of Vraibleusia; that its connection with civil and
religious liberty was indissoluble; that every man, woman, and child
above fifteen in the island was a martyr to it; that it was occasioned
by their rapid mode of despatching their meals, which again was
occasioned by the little time which the most active nation in the world
could afford to bestow upon such a losing business as eating.

All this was no consolation to a man who had lost his appetite; and so
Popanilla sent for a gentleman who, he was told, was the most eminent
physician in the island. The most eminent physician, when he arrived,
would not listen to a single syllable that his patient wished to address
to him. He told Popanilla that his disorder was 'decidedly liver;' that
it was occasioned by his eating his meat before his bread instead of