to prepare the
greatest engine they had. It was a frame of wood raised three inches
from the ground, about seven feet long, and four wide, moving upon
twenty-two wheels. The shout I heard was upon the arrival of this
engine, which, it seems, set out in four hours after my landing. It was
brought parallel to me, as I lay. But the principal difficulty was to
raise and place me in this vehicle. Eighty poles, each of one foot high,
were erected for this purpose, and very strong cords, of the bigness of
packthread, were fastened by hooks to many bandages, which the workmen
had girt round my neck, my hands, my body, and my legs. Nine hundred of
the strongest men were employed to draw up these cords, by many pulleys
fastened on the poles; and thus, in less than three hours, I was raised
and slung into the engine, and there tied fast. All this I was told;
for, while the operation was performing, I lay in a profound sleep, by
the force of that soporiferous medicine infused into my liquor. Fifteen
hundred of the emperor's largest horses, each about four inches and a
half high, were employed to draw me towards the metropolis, which, as I
said, was half a mile distant.

About four hours after we began our journey, I awaked by a very
ridiculous accident; for the carriage being stopped a while, to adjust
something that was out of order, two or three of the young natives had
the curiosity to see how I looked when I was asleep; they climbed up into
the engine, and advancing very softly to my face, one of them, an officer
in the guards, put the sharp end of his half-pike a good way up into my
left nostril, which tickled my nose like a straw, and made me sneeze
violently; whereupon they stole off unperceived, and it was three weeks
before I knew the cause of my waking so suddenly. We made a long march
the remaining part of the day, and, rested at night with five hundred
guards on each side of me, half with torches, and half with bows and
arrows, ready to shoot me if I should offer to stir. The next morning at
sun-rise we continued our march, and arrived within two hundred yards of
the city gates about noon. The emperor, and all his court, came out to
meet us; but his great officers would by no means suffer his majesty to
endanger his person by mounting on my body.

At the place where the carriage stopped there stood an ancient temple,
esteemed to be the largest in the whole kingdom; which, having been
polluted some years bef