บทที่ บทที่ 18 · WHAT THEY SAW IN THE COUNTRY OF EL DORADO.

Cacambo expressed his curiosity to the landlord, who made answer:

"I am very ignorant, but not the worse on that account. However, we have

in this neighbourhood an old man retired from Court who is the most

learned and most communicative person in the kingdom."

At once he took Cacambo to the old man. Candide acted now only a second

character, and accompanied his valet. They entered a very plain house,

for the door was only of silver, and the ceilings were only of gold, but

wrought in so elegant a taste as to vie with the richest. The

antechamber, indeed, was only encrusted with rubies and emeralds, but

the order in which everything was arranged made amends for this great

simplicity.

The old man received the strangers on his sofa, which was stuffed with

humming-birds' feathers, and ordered his servants to present them with

liqueurs in diamond goblets; after which he satisfied their curiosity

in the following terms:

"I am now one hundred and seventy-two years old, and I learnt of my late

father, Master of the Horse to the King, the amazing revolutions of

Peru, of which he had been an eyewitness. The kingdom we now inhabit is

the ancient country of the Incas, who quitted it very imprudently to

conquer another part of the world, and were at length destroyed by the

Spaniards.

"More wise by far were the princes of their family, who remained in

their native country; and they ordained, with the consent of the whole

nation, that none of the inhabitants should ever be permitted to quit

this little kingdom; and this has preserved our innocence and happiness.

The Spaniards have had a confused notion of this country, and have

called it _El Dorado_; and an Englishman, whose name was Sir Walter

Raleigh, came very near it about a hundred years ago; but being

surrounded by inaccessible rocks and precipices, we have hitherto been

sheltered from the rapaciousness of European nations, who have an

inconceivable passion for the pebbles and dirt of our land, for the sake

of which they would murder us to the last man."

The conversation was long: it turned chiefly on their form of

government, their manners, their women, their public entertainments,

and the arts. At length Candide, having always had a taste for

metaphysics, made Cacambo ask whether there was any religion in that

country.

The old man reddened a little.

"How then," said he, "can you doubt it? Do you take us for ungrateful

wretches?"

Cacambo humbly asked, "What was the religion in El Dorado?"

The old man reddened again.

"Can there be two religions?" said he. "We have, I believe, the religion

of all the world: we worship God night and morning."

"Do you worship but one God?" said Cacambo, who still acted as

interpreter in representing Candide's doubts.

"Surely," said the old man, "there are not two, nor three, nor four. I

must confess the people from your side of the world ask very

extraordinary questions."

Candide was not yet tired of interrogating the good old man; he wanted

to know in what manner they prayed to God in El Dorado.

"We do not pray to Him," said the worthy sage; "we have nothing to ask

of Him; He has given us all we need, and we return Him thanks without

ceasing."

Candide having a curiosity to see the priests asked where they were.

The good old man smiled.

"My friend," said he, "we are all priests. The King and all the heads of

families sing solemn canticles of thanksgiving every morning,

accompanied by five or six thousand musicians."

"What! have you no monks who teach, who dispute, who govern, who cabal,

and who burn people that are not of their opinion?"

"We must be mad, indeed, if that were the case," said the old man; "here

we are all of one opinion, and we know not what you mean by monks."

During this whole discourse Candide was in raptures, and he said to

himself:

"This is vastly different from Westphalia and the Baron's castle. Had

our friend Pangloss seen El Dorado he would no longer have said that the

castle of Thunder-ten-Tronckh was the finest upon earth. It is evident

that one must travel."

After this long conversation the old man ordered a coach and six sheep

to be got ready, and twelve of his domestics to conduct the travellers

to Court.

"Excuse me," said he, "if my age deprives me of the honour of

accompanying you. The King will receive you in a manner that cannot

displease you; and no doubt you will make an allowance for the customs

of the country, if some things should not be to your liking."

Candide and Cacambo got into the coach, the six sheep flew, and in less

than four hours they reached the King's palace situated at the extremity

of the capital. The portal was two hundred and twenty feet high, and one

hundred wide; but words are wanting to express the materials of which it

was built. It is plain such materials must have prodigious superiority

over those pebbles and sand which we call gold and precious stones.

Twenty beautiful damsels of the King's guard received Candide and

Cacambo as they alighted from the coach, conducted them to the bath, and

dressed them in robes woven of the down of humming-birds; after which

the great crown officers, of both sexes, led them to the King's

apartment, between two files of musicians, a thousand on each side. When

they drew near to the audience chamber Cacambo asked one of the great

officers in what way he should pay his obeisance to his Majesty; whether

they should throw themselves upon their knees or on their stomachs;

whether they should put their hands upon their heads or behind their

backs; whether they should lick the dust off the floor; in a word, what

was the ceremony?

"The custom," said the great officer, "is to embrace the King, and to

kiss him on each cheek."

Candide and Cacambo threw themselves round his Majesty's neck. He

received them with all the goodness imaginable, and politely invited

them to supper.

While waiting they were shown the city, and saw the public edifices

raised as high as the clouds, the market places ornamented with a

thousand columns, the fountains of spring water, those of rose water,

those of liqueurs drawn from sugar-cane, incessantly flowing into the

great squares, which were paved with a kind of precious stone, which

gave off a delicious fragrancy like that of cloves and cinnamon. Candide

asked to see the court of justice, the parliament. They told him they

had none, and that they were strangers to lawsuits. He asked if they had

any prisons, and they answered no. But what surprised him most and gave

him the greatest pleasure was the palace of sciences, where he saw a

gallery two thousand feet long, and filled with instruments employed in

mathematics and physics.

After rambling about the city the whole afternoon, and seeing but a

thousandth part of it, they were reconducted to the royal palace, where

Candide sat down to table with his Majesty, his valet Cacambo, and

several ladies. Never was there a better entertainment, and never was

more wit shown at a table than that which fell from his Majesty. Cacambo

explained the King's _bon-mots_ to Candide, and notwithstanding they

were translated they still appeared to be _bon-mots_. Of all the things

that surprised Candide this was not the least.

They spent a month in this hospitable place. Candide frequently said to

Cacambo:

"I own, my friend, once more that the castle where I was born is nothing

in comparison with this; but, after all, Miss Cunegonde is not here, and

you have, without doubt, some mistress in Europe. If we abide here we

shall only be upon a footing with the rest, whereas, if we return to our

old world, only with twelve sheep laden with the pebbles of El Dorado,

we shall be richer than all the kings in Europe. We shall have no more

Inquisitors to fear, and we may easily recover Miss Cunegonde."

This speech was agreeable to Cacambo; mankind are so fond of roving, of

making a figure in their own country, and of boasting of what they have

seen in their travels, that the two happy ones resolved to be no longer

so, but to ask his Majesty's leave to quit the country.

"You are foolish," said the King. "I am sensible that my kingdom is but

a small place, but when a person is comfortably settled in any part he

should abide there. I have not the right to detain strangers. It is a

tyranny which neither our manners nor our laws permit. All men are free.

Go when you wish, but the going will be very difficult. It is impossible

to ascend that rapid river on which you came as by a miracle, and which

runs under vaulted rocks. The mountains which surround my kingdom are

ten thousand feet high, and as steep as walls; they are each over ten

leagues in breadth, and there is no other way to descend them than by

precipices. However, since you absolutely wish to depart, I shall give

orders to my engineers to construct a machine that will convey you very

safely. When we have conducted you over the mountains no one can

accompany you further, for my subjects have made a vow never to quit the

kingdom, and they are too wise to break it. Ask me besides anything that

you please."

"We desire nothing of your Majesty," says Candide, "but a few sheep

laden with provisions, pebbles, and the earth of this country."

The King laughed.

"I cannot conceive," said he, "what pleasure you Europeans find in our

yellow clay, but take as much as you like, and great good may it do

you."

At once he gave directions that his engineers should construct a machine

to hoist up these two extraordinary men out of the kingdom. Three

thousand good mathematicians went to work; it was ready in fifteen days,

and did not cost more than twenty million sterling in the specie of that

country. They placed Candide and Cacambo on the machine. There were two

great red sheep saddled and bridled to ride upon as soon as they were

beyond the mountains, twenty pack-sheep laden with provisions, thirty

with presents of the curiosities of the country, and fifty with gold,

diamonds, and precious stones. The King embraced the two wanderers very

tenderly.

Their departure, with the ingenious manner in which they and their sheep

were hoisted over the mountains, was a splendid spectacle. The

mathematicians took their leave after conveying them to a place of

safety, and Candide had no other desire, no other aim, than to present

his sheep to Miss Cunegonde.

"Now," said he, "we are able to pay the Governor of Buenos Ayres if Miss

Cunegonde can be ransomed. Let us journey towards Cayenne. Let us

embark, and we will afterwards see what kingdom we shall be able to

purchase."

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