“In memorial of his success Aeriolus gives in testimony the transcribed after observation. ‘The transition from meat to fish, for a “fasting” flight of instinct, was adopted with far greater avidity than in human acts of ritualistic conformity to mythical injunctions, which we have seen practiced by the sectarian devotees to creeds, as negative compensations for over indulgence of the carnal affections.’
“When the arrangements of Aeriolus were fully perfected, he and thirty associates, with their wives, bade a hopeful farewell to the people of Manatitla, and started from the lochia (plaza) of Maniculæ upon their adventurous air voyage of discovery, with a leading falcon and three followers. Studying to aid the falcons by every possible means they, to their joyful surprise, discovered land on the morning of the fourth day from the start, and, at an early hour thereafter, alighted upon the lofty peak of an island mountain, since known as the Corcovado, a mountain summit of Corvo, one of the Azorean Isles. After regaling the falcons in relief from their lenten diet, they, of their own accord, continued their flight to the mainland. Our joy was much depressed, while passing over the beautiful land scenes, by the fierce cries of giga hosts engaged in battle encounter. In our course eastward, to a country of colored races resembling the aboriginals of our own, not a day passed without our forced observation of a battle scene, with fields and smoking ruins that bespoke the devastation of warful rage.
“Sick and despairing from the constant recurrence of murderous acts of despoliation, we at last reached, in returning, a cluster of islands in the western ocean to the northward of our point of arrival. On the largest island we found a hardy species of falcon, and, with the lure of our own, obtained four. After a few days’ training of our transport addition we returned to the island where we first landed. Anxious to return to our people, and the cheering welcome of loving affection, we only tarried upon the island a sufficient time to accustom our newly acquired birds to devour their food while sustained by the parachute and their wings in mid-rest. Starting, homeward bound, on the morning of the sixtieth sun from the date of our departure from Maniculæ, we reached it again on the third day with the first notes of the evening anthem of thanksgiving, in which we gratefully joined in our descent to perch.