“Pray, remember,” said he, in a voice indicating great anxiety, “that if I have not much of the world’s riches, I am at least an honest man, which is saying something, as things go.  I may say, too, that I set some value upon my military reputation; therefore, let what you have to offer be such as it will not lower my reputation to accept.  To tell you the truth, sir, I have a foreign mission in my eye, and am sure of getting it when I go to Washington, since my qualifications are not a whit behind any of them.”

“Bury your misgivings, I enjoin you,” replied the stranger, “for I am a responsible man, and the service I require of you is highly honorable.  I have a mighty project in view, and if it can with your assistance be carried to a successful issue, not only will I make you a great general, but a rich man for the rest of your life.”

The prospect of being made a great general so elated our hero, that as the stranger discovered his project in detail, he entered into it with great alacrity, and would, as an earnest of his ability, have given him an account of all the wars he had been in, and the victories that were gained solely by following his advice, but that the stranger assured him it was unnecessary, since he had already seen enough proof of his being a man of valor.

Pekleworth Glanmoregain, I must mention here, was a man who had become famous in commerce, and had large possessions.  But these he was not content to enjoy, but sought to increase his wealth by means our forefathers would have characterized with much severity.  There was, according to Pekleworth Glanmoregain, a territory somewhere on the Spanish main, familiarly known as the Kingdom of the Kaloramas.  The Kaloramas were an inoffensive people, who had been much degraded by intestine wars, and were so low in the scale of physical and intellectual quality as to enlist in their behalf the sympathies of the powerful and magnanimous.  But as that which is nationally weak only serves as a prey to that which is nationally strong, so the poor, emaciated Kaloramas had for years been a prey to the avarice of rival adventurers, who, in that spirit which arrogance always asserts over ignorance, would make their king a puppet and themselves mere vassals.  And this the wily adventurers did, by professing great friendship for the king and his people, then setting up a fictitious claim to a voice in the affairs of the kingdom, and finally demanding for such service, which any knave or fool might have rendered, not one, but all his islands.  In truth, the Kingdom of the Kaloramas, though insignificant in its own political aspect, had furnished a grand theme for a comedy of modern diplomatic errors, in the performance of which numerous clever gentlemen had found much innocent recreation, though not a man had been found capable of solving the plot to the satisfaction of the spectators.  In fine, what caused so much longing after, and so many evil eyes to be cast upon this little kingdom of the poor Kaloramas,