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ignore the fact that my bodily sensations were no longer agreeable.
In some way that I have now forgotten, my mind was led back to projects
of colonisation. "We must annex this moon," I said. "There must be
no shilly-shally. This is part of the White Man's Burthen. Cavor--we
are--hic--Satap--mean Satraps! Nempire Caesar never dreamt. B'in all
the newspapers. Cavorecia. Bedfordecia. Bedfordecia--hic--Limited.
Mean--unlimited! Practically."
Certainly I was intoxicated.
I embarked upon an argument to show the infinite benefits our arrival
would confer on the moon. I involved myself in a rather difficult proof
that the arrival of Columbus was, on the whole, beneficial to America. I
found I had forgotten the line of argument I had intended to pursue, and
continued to repeat "sim'lar to C'lumbus," to fill up time.
From that point my memory of the action of that abominable fungus becomes
confused. I remember vaguely that we declared our intention of standing no
nonsense from any confounded insects, that we decided it ill became men to
hide shamefully upon a mere satellite, that we equipped ourselves with
huge armfuls of the fungus--whether for missile purposes or not I do not
know--and, heedless of the stabs of the bayonet scrub, we started forth
into the sunshine.
Almost immediately we must have come upon the Selenites. There were six of
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