Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery

CHAPTER XVI. The Author returns to the Explorer--Holds a council of officers--Determines to return to Seaborn's Land--Takes leave of Surui--Sails from Symzonia--Touches at Token Island--Arrives at Boneto's station. I returned to my ship, with sensations very different from those which delighted my heart on my passage from it. I felt like a culprit exiled to Botany Bay for his crimes: so strong was the contrast between the peaceful, intelligent, and virtuous people, from amongst whom I was driven, and the turbulent, rude, and corrupt externals, with whom I was doomed to pass the remainder of my days. My chief consolation was derived from that contemptible passion, vanity, a certain evidence that I was a true external. I could not avoid being elated, and indulging some pleasant emotions, when I thought of the great curiosity my arrival from the internal world would excite amongst the externals, the celebrity I should acquire, the prodigious importance which would be ascribed to my discoveries, and the unbounded encomiums which would be lavished on me for my wonderful capacity of mind, displayed in the contrivance of my voyage, and the incomparable bravery, skill, and perseverance displayed in the execution of it. All this, with the anticipation of the many public dinners which would be eaten in honour of the discoverer, the flattering toasts which would be drank all over the United States, and perhaps in Europe, together with the pleasure I should enjoy in relating my apparently tough stories, helped to keep up my spirits.