CHAPTER XV

Pellicudar

by Edgar R. Burroughs

CHAPTER XV, PELLICUDAR by Edgar R. Burroughs
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CONQUEST AND PEACE

The fleet sailed directly for Hooja's island, coming to
anchor at its north-eastern extremity before the flat-
topped hill that had been Hooja's stronghold. I sent one
of the prisoners ashore to demand an immediate sur-
render; but as he told me afterward they wouldn't be-
lieve all that he told them, so they congregated on the
cliff-top and shot futile arrows at us.

In reply I had five of the feluccas cannonade them.
When they scampered away at the sound of the terrific
explosions, and at sight of the smoke and the iron balls
I landed a couple of hundred red warriors and led
them to the opposite end of the hill into the tunnel that
ran to its summit. Here we met a little resistance; but a
volley from the muzzle-loaders turned back those who
disputed our right of way, and presently we gained the
mesa. Here again we met resistance, but at last the
remnant of Hooja's horde surrendered.

Juag was with me, and I lost no time in returning to
him and his tribe the hilltop that had been their an-
cestral home for ages until they were robbed of it by
Hooja. I created a kingdom of the island, making Juag
king there. Before we sailed I went to Gr-gr-gr, chief of
the beast-men, taking Juag with me. There the three of
us arranged a code of laws that would permit the brute-
folk and the human beings of the island to live in peace
and harmony. Gr-gr-gr sent his son with me back to
Sari, capital of my empire, that he might learn the
ways of the human beings. I have hopes of turning this
race into the greatest agriculturists of Pellucidar.
When I returned to the fleet I found that one of the
islanders of Juag's tribe, who had been absent when we
arrived, had just returned from the mainland with the
news that a great army was encamped in the Land of
Awful Shadow, and that they were threatening Thuria.
I lost no time in weighing anchors and setting out for the
continent, which we reached after a short and easy
voyage.

From the deck of the Amoz I scanned the shore
through the glasses that Perry had brought with him.
When we were close enough for the glasses to be of
value I saw that there was indeed a vast concourse of
warriors entirely encircling the walled-village of Goork,
chief of the Thurians. As we approached smaller objects
became distinguishable. It was then that I discovered
numerous flags and pennants floating above the army
of the besiegers.

I called Perry and passed the glasses to him.

"Ghak of Sari," I said.

Perry looked through the lenses of a moment, and then
turned to me with a smile.

"The red, white, and blue of the empire," he said. "It
is indeed your majesty's army."

It soon became apparent that we had been sighted
by those on shore, for a great multitude of warriors had
congregated along the beach watching us. We came to
anchor as close in as we dared, which with our light
feluccas was within easy speaking-distance of the shore.
Ghak was there and his eyes were mighty wide, too;
for, as he told us later, though he knew this must be
Perry's fleet it was so wonderful to him that he could
not believe the testimony of his own eyes even while
he was watching it approach.

To give the proper effect to our meeting I com-
manded that each felucca fire twenty-one guns as a
salute to His Majesty Ghak, King of Sari. Some of the
gunners, in the exuberance of their enthusiasm, fired
solid shot; but fortunately they had sufficient good judg-
ment to train their pieces on the open sea, so no harm
was done. After this we landed--an arduous task since
each felucca carried but a single light dugout.

I learned from Ghak that the Thurian chieftain,
Goork, had been inclined to haughtiness, and had told
Ghak, the Hairy One, that he knew nothing of me and
cared less; but I imagine that the sight of the fleet and
the sound of the guns brought him to his senses, for it
was not long before he sent a deputation to me, inviting
me to visit him in his village. Here he apologized for
the treatment he had accorded me, very gladly swore
allegiance to the empire, and received in return the title
of king.

We remained in Thuria only long enough to arrange
the treaty with Goork, among the other details of which
was his promise to furnish the imperial army with a
thousand lidi, or Thurian beasts of burden, and drivers
for them. These were to accompany Ghak's army back
to Sari by land, while the fleet sailed to the mouth of the
great river from which Dian, Juag, and I had been
blown.

The voyage was uneventful. We found the river
easily, and sailed up it for many miles through as rich
and wonderful a plain as I have ever seen. At the head
of navigation we disembarked, leaving a sufficient guard
for the feluccas, and marched the remaining distance to
Sari.

Ghak's army, which was composed of warriors of all
the original tribes of the federation, showing how suc-
cessful had been his efforts to rehabilitate the empire,
marched into Sari some time after we arrived. With
them were the thousand lidi from Thuria.

At a council of the kings it was decided that we should
at once commence the great war against the Mahars,
for these haughty reptiles presented the greatest obstacle
to human progress within Pellucidar. I laid out a plan
of campaign which met with the enthusiastic indorse-
ment of the kings. Pursuant to it, I at once despatched
fifty lidi to the fleet with orders to fetch fifty cannon to
Sari. I also ordered the fleet to proceed at once to
Anoroc, where they were to take aboard all the rifles
and ammunition that had been completed since their
departure, and with a full complement of men to sail
along the coast in an attempt to find a passage to the
inland sea near which lay the Mahars' buried city of
Phutra.

Ja was sure that a large and navigable river connected
the sea of Phutra with the Lural Az, and that, barring
accident, the fleet would be before Phutra as soon as the
land forces were.

At last the great army started upon its march. There
were warriors from every one of the federated kingdoms.
All were armed either with bow and arrows or muzzle-
loaders, for nearly the entire Mezop contingent had been
enlisted for this march, only sufficient having been left
aboard the feluccas to man them properly. I divided the
forces into divisions, regiments, battalions, companies,
and even to platoons and sections, appointing the full
complement of officers and noncommissioned officers. On
the long march I schooled them in their duties, and as
fast as one learned I sent him among the others as a
teacher.

Each regiment was made up of about a thousand
bowmen, and to each was temporarily attached a com-
pany of Mezop musketeers and a battery of artillery--
the latter, our naval guns, mounted upon the broad
backs of the mighty lidi. There was also one full regi-
ment of Mezop musketeers and a regiment of primitive
spearmen. The rest of the lidi that we brought with us
were used for baggage animals and to transport our
women and children, for we had brought them with us,
as it was our intention to march from one Mahar city to
another until we had subdued every Mahar nation that
menaced the safety of any kingdom of the empire.

Before we reached the plain of Phutra we were dis-
covered by a company of Sagoths, who at first stood to
give battle; but upon seeing the vast numbers of our
army they turned and fled toward Phutra. The result
of this was that when we came in sight of the hundred
towers which mark the entrances to the buried city we
found a great army of Sagoths and Mahars lined up to
give us battle.

At a thousand yards we halted, and, placing our
artillery upon a slight eminence at either flank, we com-
menced to drop solid shot among them. Ja, who was
chief artillery officer, was in command of this branch of
the service, and he did some excellent work, for his
Mezop gunners had become rather proficient by this
time. The Sagoths couldn't stand much of this sort of
warfare, so they charged us, yelling like fiends. We let
them come quite close, and then the musketeers who
formed the first line opened up on them.

The slaughter was something frightful, but still the
remnants of them kept on coming until it was a matter
of hand-to-hand fighting. Here our spearmen were of
value, as were also the crude iron swords with which
most of the imperial warriors were armed.

We lost heavily in the encounter after the Sagoths
reached us; but they were absolutely exterminated--
not one remained even as a prisoner. The Mahars, seeing
how the battle was going, had hastened to the safety of
their buried city. When we had overcome their gorilla-
men we followed after them.

But here we were doomed to defeat, at least tempo-
rarily; for no sooner had the first of our troops descended
into the subterranean avenues than many of them came
stumbling and fighting their way back to the surface,
half-choked by the fumes of some deadly gas that the
reptiles had liberated upon them. We lost a number of
men here. Then I sent for Perry, who had remained
discreetly in the rear, and had him construct a little
affair that I had had in my mind against the possibility
of our meeting with a check at the entrances to the
underground city.

Under my direction he stuffed one of his cannon full
of powder, small bullets, and pieces of stone, almost to
the muzzle. Then he plugged the muzzle tight with a
cone-shaped block of wood, hammered and jammed in
as tight as it could be. Next he inserted a long fuse. A
dozen men rolled the cannon to the top of the stairs
leading down into the city, first removing it from its
carriage. One of them then lit the fuse and the whole
thing was given a shove down the stairway, while the
detachment turned and scampered to a safe distance.

For what seemed a very long time nothing happened.
We had commenced to think that the fuse had been
put out while the piece was rolling down the stairway,
or that the Mahars had guessed its purpose and ex-
tinguished it themselves, when the ground about the
entrance rose suddenly into the air, to be followed by a
terrific explosion and a burst of smoke and flame that
shot high in company with dirt, stone, and fragments of
cannon.

Perry had been working on two more of these giant
bombs as soon as the first was completed. Presently we
launched these into two of the other entrances. They
were all that were required, for almost immediately after
the third explosion a stream of Mahars broke from the
exits furthest from us, rose upon their wings, and soared
northward. A hundred men on lidi were despatched in
pursuit, each lidi carrying two riflemen in addition to its
driver. Guessing that the inland sea, which lay not far
north of Phutra, was their destination, I took a couple
of regiments and followed.

A low ridge intervenes between the Phutra plain
where the city lies, and the inland sea where the Ma-
hars were wont to disport themselves in the cool waters.
Not until we had topped this ridge did we get a view of
the sea.

Then we beheld a scene that I shall never forget so
long as I may live.

Along the beach were lined up the troop of lidi, while
a hundred yards from shore the surface of the water was
black with the long snouts and cold, reptilian eyes of the
Mahars. Our savage Mezop riflemen, and the shorter,
squatter, white-skinned Thurian drivers, shading their
eyes with their hands, were gazing seaward beyond the
Mahars, whose eyes were fastened upon the same spot.
My heart leaped when I discovered that which was
chaining the attention of them all. Twenty graceful
feluccas were moving smoothly across the waters of the
sea toward the reptilian horde!

The sight must have filled the Mahars with awe and
consternation, for never had they seen the like of these
craft before. For a time they seemed unable to do aught
but gaze at the approaching fleet; but when the Mezops
opened on them with their muskets the reptiles swam
rapidly in the direction of the feluccas, evidently think-
ing that these would prove the easier to overcome. The
commander of the fleet permitted them to approach
within a hundred yards. Then he opened on them with
all the cannon that could be brought to bear, as well as
with the small arms of the sailors.

A great many of the reptiles were killed at the first
volley. They wavered for a moment, then dived; nor did
we see them again for a long time.

But finally they rose far out beyond the fleet, and
when the feluccas came about and pursued them they
left the water and flew away toward the north.

Following the fall of Phutra I visited Anoroc, where I
found the people busy in the shipyards and the factories
that Perry had established. I discovered something, too,
that he had not told me of--something that seemed
infinitely more promising than the powder-factory or the
arsenal. It was a young man poring over one of the books
I had brought back from the outer world! He was sitting
in the log cabin that Perry had had built to serve as his
sleeping quarters and office. So absorbed was he that he
did not notice our entrance. Perry saw the look of as-
tonishment in my eyes and smiled.

"I started teaching him the alphabet when we first
reached the prospector, and were taking out its con-
tents," be explained. "He was much mystified by the
books and anxious to know of what use they were. When
I explained he asked me to teach him to read, and so I
worked with him whenever I could. He is very in-
telligent and learns quickly. Before I left he had made
great progress, and as soon as he is qualified he is going
to teach others to read. It was mighty hard work getting
started, though, for everything had to be translated into
Pellucidarian.

"It will take a long time to solve this problem, but I
think that by teaching a number of them to read and
write English we shall then be able more quickly to give
them a written language of their own."

And this was the nucleus about which we were to
build our great system of schools and colleges--this
almost naked red warrior, sitting in Perry's little cabin
upon the island of Anoroc, picking out words letter by
letter from a work on intensive farming. Now we have--

But I'll get to all that before I finish.

While we were at Anoroc I accompanied Ja in an
expedition to South Island, the southernmost of the three
largest which form the Anoroc group--Perry had given
it its name--where we made peace with the tribe there
that had for long been hostile toward Ja. They were now
glad enough to make friends with him and come into the
federation. From there we sailed with sixty-five feluccas
for distant Luana, the main island of the group where
dwell the hereditary enemies of Anoroc.

Twenty-five of the feluccas were of a new and larger
type than those with which Ja and Perry had sailed on
the occasion when they chanced to find and rescue
Dian and me. They were longer, carried much larger
sails, and were considerably swifter. Each carried four
guns instead of two, and these were so arranged that
one or more of them could be brought into action no
matter where the enemy lay.

The Luana group lies just beyond the range of vision
from the mainland. The largest island of it alone is
visible from Anoroc; but when we neared it we found
that it comprised many beautiful islands, and that they
were thickly populated. The Luanians had not, of course,
been ignorant of all that had been going on in the
domains of their nearest and dearest enemies. They
knew of our feluccas and our guns, for several of their
riding-parties had had a taste of both. But their principal
chief, an old man, had never seen either. So, when he
sighted us, he put out to overwhelm us, bringing with
him a fleet of about a hundred large war-canoes,
loaded to capacity with javelin-armed warriors. It was
pitiful, and I told Ja as much. It seemed a shame to
massacre these poor fellows if there was any way out of
it.

To my surprise Ja felt much as I did. He said he had
always hated to war with other Mezops when there were
so many alien races to fight against. I suggested that
we hail the chief and request a parley; but when Ja
did so the old fool thought that we were afraid, and
with loud cries of exultation urged his warriors upon
us.

So we opened up on them, but at my suggestion
centered our fire upon the chief's canoe. The result was
that in about thirty seconds there was nothing left of
that war dugout but a handful of splinters, while its crew
--those who were not killed--were struggling in the
water, battling with the myriad terrible creatures that
had risen to devour them.

We saved some of them, but the majority died just as
had Hooja and the crew of his canoe that time our
second shot capsized them.

Again we called to the remaining warriors to enter
into a parley with us; but the chief's son was there and
he would not, now that he had seen his father killed. He
was all for revenge. So we had to open up on the brave
fellows with all our guns; but it didn't last long at that,
for there chanced to be wiser heads among the Luanians
than their chief or his son had possessed. Presently, an
old warrior who commanded one of the dugouts sur-
rendered. After that they came in one by one until
all had laid their weapons upon our decks.

Then we called together upon the flag-ship all our
captains, to give the affair greater weight and dignity,
and all the principal men of Luana. We had conquered
them, and they expected either death or slavery; but
they deserved neither, and I told them so. It is always
my habit here in Pellucidar to impress upon these savage
people that mercy is as noble a quality as physical
bravery, and that next to the men who fight shoulder
to shoulder with one, we should honor the brave men
who fight against us, and if we are victorious, award
them both the mercy and honor that are their due.

By adhering to this policy I have won to the federa-
tion many great and noble peoples, who under the
ancient traditions of the inner world would have been
massacred or enslaved after we had conquered them;
and thus I won the Luanians. I gave them their freedom,
and returned their weapons to them after they had
sworn loyalty to me and friendship and peace with Ja,
and I made the old fellow, who had had the good sense
to surrender, king of Luana, for both the old chief and
his only son had died in the battle.

When I sailed away from Luana she was included
among the kingdoms of the empire, whose boundaries
were thus pushed eastward several hundred miles.

We now returned to Anoroc and thence to the main-
land, where I again took up the campaign against the
Mahars, marching from one great buried city to another
until we had passed far north of Amoz into a country
where I had never been. At each city we were vic-
torious, killing or capturing the Sagoths and driving the
Mahars further away.

I noticed that they always fled toward the north. The
Sagoth prisoners we usually found quite ready to trans-
fer their allegiance to us, for they are little more than
brutes, and when they found that we could fill their
stomachs and give them plenty of fighting, they were
nothing loath to march with us against the next Mahar
city and battle with men of their own race.

Thus we proceeded, swinging in a great half-circle
north and west and south again until we had come back
to the edge of the Lidi Plains north of Thuria. Here
we overcame the Mahar city that had ravaged the Land
of Awful Shadow for so many ages. When we marched
on to Thuria, Goork and his people went mad with joy
at the tidings we brought them.

During this long march of conquest we had passed
through seven countries, peopled by primitive human
tribes who had not yet heard of the federation, and
succeeded in joining them all to the empire. It was
noticeable that each of these peoples had a Mahar city
situated near by, which had drawn upon them for slaves
and human food for so many ages that not even in
legend had the population any folk-tale which did not in
some degree reflect an inherent terror of the reptilians.

In each of these countries I left an officer and warriors
to train them in military discipline, and prepare them
to receive the arms that I intended furnishing them as
rapidly as Perry's arsenal could turn them out, for we
felt that it would be a long, long time before we should
see the last of the Mahars. That they had flown north
but temporarily until we should be gone with our great
army and terrifying guns I was positive, and equally sure
was I that they would presently return.

The task of ridding Pellucidar of these hideous crea-
tures is one which in all probability will never be entirely
completed, for their great cities must abound by the
hundreds and thousands of the far-distant lands that no
subject of the empire has ever laid eyes upon.

But within the present boundaries of my domain
there are now none left that I know of, for I am sure
we should have heard indirectly of any great Mahar
city that had escaped us, although of course the imperial
army has by no means covered the vast area which I
now rule.

After leaving Thuria we returned to Sari, where the
seat of government is located. Here, upon a vast, fertile
plateau, overlooking the great gulf that runs into the
continent from the Lural Az, we are building the great
city of Sari. Here we are erecting mills and factories.
Here we are teaching men and women the rudiments of
agriculture. Here Perry has built the first printing-press,
and a dozen young Sarians are teaching their fellows to
read and write the language of Pellucidar.

We have just laws and only a few of them. Our people
are happy because they are always working at some-
thing which they enjoy. There is no money, nor is any
money value placed upon any commodity. Perry and I
were as one in resolving that the root of all evil should
not be introduced into Pellucidar while we lived.

A man may exchange that which he produces for
something which he desires that another has produced;
but he cannot dispose of the thing he thus acquires. In
other words, a commodity ceases to have pecuniary
value the instant that it passes out of the hands of its
producer. All excess reverts to government; and, as this
represents the production of the people as a government,
government may dispose of it to other peoples in ex-
change for that which they produce. Thus we are es-
tablishing a trade between kingdoms, the profits from
which go to the betterment of the people--to building
factories for the manufacture of agricultural implements,
and machinery for the various trades we are gradually
teaching the people.

Already Anoroc and Luana are vying with one
another in the excellence of the ships they build. Each
has several large ship-yards. Anoroc makes gunpowder
and mines iron ore, and by means of their ships they
carry on a very lucrative trade with Thuria, Sari, and
Amoz. The Thurians breed lidi, which, having the
strength and intelligence of an elephant, make excellent
draft animals.

Around Sari and Amoz the men are domesticating the
great striped antelope, the meat of which is most de-
licious. I am sure that it will not be long before they
will have them broken to harness and saddle. The horses
of Pellucidar are far too diminutive for such uses, some
species of them being little larger than fox-terriers.

Dian and I live in a great palace overlooking the gulf.
There is no glass in our windows, for we have no win-
dows, the walls rising but a few feet above the floor-line,
the rest of the space being open to the ceilings; but we
have a roof to shade us from the perpetual noon-day
sun. Perry and I decided to set a style in architecture
that would not curse future generations with the white
plague, so we have plenty of ventilation. Those of the
people who prefer, still inhabit their caves, but many
are building houses similar to ours.

At Greenwich we have located a town and an ob-
servatory--though there is nothing to observe but the
stationary sun directly overhead. Upon the edge of the
Land of Awful Shadow is another observatory, from
which the time is flashed by wireless to every corner of
the empire twenty-four times a day. In addition to the
wireless, we have a small telephone system in Sari.
Everything is yet in the early stages of development;
but with the science of the outer-world twentieth
century to draw upon we are making rapid progress, and
with all the faults and errors of the outer world to guide
us clear of dangers, I think that it will not be long before
Pellucidar will become as nearly a Utopia as one may
expect to find this side of heaven.

Perry is away just now, laying out a railway-line from
Sari to Amoz. There are immense anthracite coal-fields
at the head of the gulf not far from Sari, and the railway
will tap these. Some of his students are working on a
locomotive now. It will be a strange sight to see an iron
horse puffing through the primeval jungles of the stone
age, while cave bears, saber-toothed tigers, mastodons
and the countless other terrible creatures of the past look
on from their tangled lairs in wide-eyed astonishment.

We are very happy, Dian and I, and I would not return
to the outer world for all the riches of all its princes. I
am content here. Even without my imperial powers and
honors I should be content, for have I not that greatest of
all treasures, the love of a good woman--my wondrous
empress, Dian the Beautiful?