"The King was sitting at the window in the upper story of the
Dilkosha house, with some English gentlemen, when the balloon passed
up close by, and the gentleman took off his hat and bowed gracefully
as he passed, at which the King seemed much pleased. I commanded a
regiment of Dragoons, and the King told me to take a party of my
boldest and best-mounted men and follow the balloon. I selected
seventeen, and we were all ready in our saddles. The balloon went
straight up, and we lost sight of the man and the boat in which he
sat. The machine, though it was sixty feet long, including boat and
all, and twelve feet wide, seemed at last to be no larger than a
small water-jug. Below we had no wind, but we soon saw the balloon
driven by an upper current to the eastward, along the Fyzabad road.
We followed as fast as the horses could carry us, crossed the Goomtee
river over the old stone bridge, and passed many travellers on the
road staring at the extraordinary machine, for they had heard nothing
about it, and we had no time to tell them. When we had gone about
seventeen miles, the balloon began to descend. It was in the month of
March, and the weather was hot, and I had lost three horses before it
came to the ground. The young man then began to let go his fish, and
they came fluttering down, while the oil-cloths about the balloon
made a noise like the growling of a wild beast.
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