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A Voyage to the Moon
Synopsis
A Voyage to the Moon: With Some Account of the Manners and Customs, Science and Philosophy of the People of Morosofia, and Other Lunarians.
Joseph Atterley of New York, finding himself in the doldrums after the death of his wife, resolves in 1822 to undertake a sea voyage to the Far East on one of his father's merchant ships. In the Indian Ocean the ship is caught by a mighty cyclone and driven ashore somewhere in the Burmese Empire. Mistaking the Americans for their enemies the British, the Burmese take Atterley and the crew captive. Atterley is eventually placed under rather loose house arrest, which allows him to meet and befriend a reclusive Indian Brahman who lives in the nearby hills. One day the Brahman reveals an astonishing secret: he knows how to build a machine to fly to the moon, and has already been there and back twice.
Excerpt
Having, by a train of fortunate circumstances, accomp-lished a voyage, of which the history of mankind affords no example; having, moreover, exerted every faculty of body and mind, to make my adventures useful to my countrymen, and even to mankind, by imparting to them the acquisition of secrets in physics and morals, of which they had not formed the faintest conception, - I flattered myself that both in the character of traveller and public benefactor, I had earned for myself an immortal name. But how these fond, these justifiable hopes have been answered, the following narrative will show. On my return to this my native State, as soon as it was noised abroad that I had met with extraordinary adventures, and made a most wonderful voyage, crowds of people pressed eagerly to see me. I at first met their inquiries with a cautious silence, which, however, but sharpened their curiosity. At length I was visited by a near relation, with whom I felt less disposed to reserve. With friendly solicitude he inquired "how much I had made by my voyage;" and when he was informed that, although I had added to my knowledge, I had not improved my fortune, he stared at me a while, and remarking that he had business at the Bank, as well as an appointment on 'Change, suddenly took his leave.
Copyright © 1827 by George Tucker
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