"Let us depart at once before the Seeress retires to her Boudoir..."
August 30-September 2, 1800
[Crandall] Sonday the 30th of August, 1800
Many a Corpse Member paid the bitterest of Pryce’s for Yester Nite’s carousals & thus they was mandated to plunge their index Fingers down their Throtes & Vomit over the side of Reason to add extra impotence1 to their Recoveries. In spite of the men’s weakened State I did not delay our time of departure, that harshest of Dominatrixes Dame Experience having taught me that strictness must be shown early on & forbearance only exerted later. Passing the Villages of New Sinope & New Stagira, fertile Farm Lands stretch out from both sides of the River & the occasional Cow & local farmer looked up at us with glaziered Eyes as we past. One oversocial dog swam out to greet us but we did not let it on bored2 & it continued to follow us for some Time till it sank to rise no more, pour retch. I did not like this either as a portent or as a simple cingleshot3 event, for as a lover of Canines & their obvious lust for Life I inwardly wept to see the creature’s Demise but the metaphor of major exertion & Travail ending in Death also mightily molested me4. We proceeded on till Dusque & encamped on the south side of the River, the Men much fatigued having traversed Thirtey Three Anglickan miles today.
[Crandall] Moonday the 31st of August, 1800
A gloomy drissel greeted us at Don5 but that did not deter us from embarking & rowing hard upstream to the Village of New Delphi, the place where I was bourne & razed6 & where my Deer7 Mother still reside’s. We reached the town in the mid afternoone after having come Twenty Seven Anglickan Myles & I told the men that this would be our stopping Place for the Nite, & that they should feel free to rome the town & enjoy them Selves, but that if drinking or whenching was what they was after that they would be sorely disappointed since New Delphi continues to maintain its strict puritanickal Religious Codes since it’s the Home of the Virgin Searess8 who is dedicated to the Godz & occasionally spurts forth frenzied words of Portent when the Mood inhabits her. I went to my Mother’s home—the home where I was growed up & thus many Mammories9 of mine adhere to it like barnackles to a Peer10—to spend the evening with her. I found her Penelopelike at her Loome, engaged in polite conversation with her female helper & when I entered unannounced her Eyes shone with joy & then Grief. “My Deer Philip,” she ejaculated. “We were just speaking of you! I was remarking to Klytemnastra here—you remember Klytemnastra, don’t you?—that I anticipated your arrival any day now, & then you materialized as if my vary Wordes had conjured you up!” My Father having past these many Yeares ago & I being the only Fruite of their Union & both of them being only Children & their Parents likewise having no Brothers nor Cisters my Mother & I enjoy a familiarity & eaze of Discourse & Closeness engendered by lack of other Family not seen amongst most Mothers & Suns11. Oh how she wept when I revealed to her the plans for this Expedition! Not in person did I reveal this to her but by Letter, & I ascertained she cried because the Epissal she sent in response was nearly illegible what with the tearsmudged Text. But now she has resigned her Self to my Resolve & doe’s her best to encourage me in my Endeavour, for in my youthe she did ever push me & propel me towards loftie Goals & grand Designs. “We must offer a prayer to the Godz at the Tabernackle, my Deer Philipp, this very Nite. Let us depart at once before the Seeress retires to her Boudoir.” And so we set off at once for the Tabernackle which sits on the Hill overlooking my hometown like a beautiful Bird of Pray. My Mother has grown frailer since I seen her last, for she needed my assistants12 in ascending the stares to the Tabernackle where as before she would practically sprint up them so devout she is. We entered the Tabernackle right foot first, as is the costume& walked strait to the Alter, my Mother placing two copper coins in the Bucket & lighting a stick of Incest13 & placing it in the Bowel14 filled with sand sitting in front of a bevy of statues representing the Olympian Godz & also a few foreign ones whose name’s escape me. “Do give my Sonne a prosperous Voyage & do let him return alive, O ye Deities!” my Mother said, bowing a cupula Time’s & tossing two more Coins in to the Bucket. “What Voyage?” a Voice suddenly said, & the source of the voice soon appeared: the Virgin Searess, enwrapt in her trademarque Plaid Robe with only her Mouth visible. “What Voyage?” she repeated, seeming to be not a little angered that we had not answered her the First Time. She then cast the flannel from off her Head & showed us her full Face—a Face at once both hideous & gorgeous. For all tho objectively speaking she was pretty there was some Thing about the symmetry & alignment that kept her from being so & even from certain Angels15 repelled One. Perhaps some of my Schock16 was also attributable to the Fact that I was expecting an older Priestess, in Deed the one who had precided over the Office in my Yeuth & I had not been enformed that that One had dyed a pair of Yearz back & this was her suckcessour that I was currantly looking at. My mother proceeded to describe my Mission to this new Priestess & place it in the Context with in which it is to transpire, & the Profitess17 appeared unusually interested in Matter’s thoroughly out side the Domaine of her Religious Calling. She strangely then axxed that I step outside the Tabernackle so that she & my Mother could talk in Privacy, a Request I granted but in Deed it seamed an Odd One. “What in Hades could they be talking about?” I said to my Self as I looked down upon my Home Town—a place I had been all too eager to escape from but never had it been so deer to me as I stood there looking on it for most probably the Finale Time. “Philipp!” I heard the voice of my Mother exclaim. “Come here!” Ever the dutifull sonne I reentered the Tabernackle & found my Mother alone & I immediately axxed her what in Hades was going on all tho I did not utilise those exact Wordz since she has a strict abhorrance for all Cursing, & she replied, “The Priestess wishes to accompany you on you’re Journey. She said she has received a Message from the Godz that it is their wish that she convert the Autochthones to the True Faith of Pantheizm & that her soul18 worry is that spending such a long time amongst a group of Males will be a severe Threat to her Virility19. As you know, her Purity is sacrosanct & any supranatural Power’s she has are contingent upon her maintaining said Purity. And so she has two Question’s for you, my Deere Philip. First, would you be willing to have her along & second, can you gaurantee the maintanence of her Purity?” I must admit I scoffed at such a Preposition20 & balked mightily, for this was no trip for a Priestess I said & I was quite addiment about the Matter but my Mother kept insisting that it was the Will of the Godz & I replied, “I’m afraid the will of the Godz is secondary to the will of Precedent Ian Torso, Mother—for this is a Journey based upon Sciense & not Suprastition. Besides, my Attention & Energies must be placed upon the furtherance of my Mission, not the coddling & comfort of a Priestess.” I brooked no more discussion on the Topick & my Mother was notabily dower21 on the walk back home, but at Dinar she warmed to me once againe & I considered the Matter forgotten. Before going to sleep I read from my Childhood Diaries still kept in the Dresser in my old room & the pitifull fondness of them was enuff to make even a Thracian weep.
[Crandall] Twosday the 1st of Septembre, 1800
I bid my mother Ado just after sonrize. I was fearing our parting would be a scene of High Drama & plenteous tears but she was quite restrained & I was as well, & we said our goodbyes as if we would see one an Other but soone. Returning to Reason, I discovered all the Men ready for departure & we set off with the Wind at our backs & so we made full useage of our Sales22, reaching the Towne of New Sparta by midday & we encamped on the South Side of the River in a grassy level plane23 having come Thirty Seven Anglickan Miles this Day. One Buck was killed by Delancey shortly after we had landed which we dined upon in grand Stile for Dinar.
[Crandall] Whensday the 2nd of Septembre, 1800
The mourning was a Dull & Grey one, the Son seeming reluctant to shew it’s Self. We set off rather sluggishley the Wind & the Currant working in tandem against us, & by late afternoone we seemed to have made hardley any Progress. We past a Village totally unknown to me but the Feature’s it had was identical to those of New Sparta, & in my foggy state of Mind I begun to misdoubt weather we had in fact drifted down stream. I then checked my Mapps but none seemed to correspond so we shouted out to a couple of the Inhabitants loitering down by the Riverside asking the name of their Towne repeatedly but they appeared to either ignore us or not comprehend us their gazes dull & their Mouths agape. We encamped for the nite on the north side, the men eating their Ration’s in sullen Silence & it worried me to find our crew so filled with Ennui so early in the Journey. After feverish calculations & the further pouring over my Mapps I determined we had made but Ten Anglickan Mile’s werth of Progression this Day.
Illustration by Mark Cousin
Impetus?
Board
Single-shot (one-shot)
Crandall’s gnawing superstition here contrasts with his frequent championing of rationality. One can either criticize him for his hypocrisy or count him among the human race.
Dawn
Born and raised
Dear
Seeress
Memories
Pier, presumably.
Sons
Assistance
Incense
Bowl
Angles
Shock
Prophetess, presumably.
Sole
Virginity?
Proposition
Dour
Sails
Plain