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246 in the life-boat, I had at last arrived among these extraordinary people. The circumstantial nature of my narrative and my earnest manner convinced him that I was not hoaxing him. He listened with eager curiosity to the accounts I gave him, and formed such a favourable idea of the strange country from my glowing description of the mode of life prevailing there, that he at last wondered how I had been able to tear myself away from the delights of Colymbia in order to engage in the comparatively dull and plodding occupations of terrestrial life.

The ship was called Der Fliegende Holländer, bound from the Bohemian port of Weissnichtwo to Nirgendsburg, in Van Demon's Land, and the captain's name was Hans Wurst. The crew was a composite one, consisting chiefly of Germans, Swedes, Danes, and Russians. The vessel was well appointed in every respect with a mixed cargo of all sorts of merchandise. I had no money to pay for my passage, but the captain was obliging enough to accept my promissory note for the amount of my passage-money.

I was soon rigged out in a suit of sailor's clothes, in which I felt awkward enough for a few days, but gradually my terrestrial habits returned to me and I felt quite at home in the atmosphere. Walking was, at first, rather a difficulty, so little had I been accustomed during the three years of my residence in Colymbia to use my legs for that purpose or to retain an upright posture. However, all things at last adjusted themselves to my changed condition, and before I had been a week on. board, I felt quite at ease. My greatest difficulty at first was getting to sleep in my hammock. As consciousness began to