ble joy, I
saw Margate at a little distance, and the eagle descending on the old
tower whence it had carried me on the morning of the day before. It no
sooner came down than I threw myself off, happy to find that I was once
more restored to the world. The eagle flew away in a few minutes, and I
sat down to compose my fluttering spirits, which I did in a few hours.

I soon paid a visit to my friends, and related these adventures.
Amazement stood in every countenance; their congratulations on my
returning in safety were repeated with an unaffected degree of pleasure,
and we passed the evening as we are doing now, every person present
paying the highest compliments to my COURAGE and VERACITY.

THE SECOND VOLUME

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND VOLUME

Baron Munchausen has certainly been productive of much benefit to the
literary world; the numbers of egregious travellers have been such,
that they demanded a very Gulliver to surpass them. If Baron de Tott
dauntlessly discharged an enormous piece of artillery, the Baron
Munchausen has done more; he has taken it and swam with it across the
sea. When travellers are solicitous to be the heroes of their own story,
surely they must admit to superiority, and blush at seeing themselves
out-done by the renowned Munchausen: I doubt whether any one hitherto,
Pantagruel, Gargantua, Captain Lemuel, or De Tott, has been able to
out-do our Baron in this species of excellence: and as at present our
curiosity seems much directed to the interior of Africa, it must be
edifying to have the real relation of Munchausen's adventures there
before any further intelligence arrives; for he seems to adapt himself
and his exploits to the spirit of the times, and recounts what he thinks
should be most interesting to his auditors.

I do not say that the Baron, in the following stories, means a satire on
any political matters whatever. No; but if the reader understands them
so, I cannot help it.

If the Baron meets with a parcel of negro ships carrying whites into
slavery to work upon their plantations in a cold climate, should we
therefore imagine that he intends a reflection on the present traffic in
human flesh? And that, if the negroes should do so, it would be simple
justice, as retaliation is the law of God! If we were to think this a
reflection on any present commercial or political matter, we should
be tempted to imagine, perhaps, some political ideas conveyed in every
page, in every s