We descended above a poor
village called Radenburg, a place amid the heaths of Hanover.
Our appearance caused great alarm, and even the beasts of the
field fled from us.
"While our balloon rapidly approached the earth, we waved our
hats and flags, and shouted to the inhabitants, but our voices
only increased their terror. The villagers rushed away with
cries of terror, leaving their herds, whose bellowings increased
the general alarm. When the balloon touched the ground, every man
had shut himself up in his own house. Having appealed in vain,
and fearing that the villagers might do us some injury, we
resolved to re-ascend.
"In making this second ascent, we threw over all our ballast; but
in this we were imprudent, for after sailing about at a great
height, and having lost much gas, I perceived that our descent
would be very rapid, and to provide against accident, I gathered
together all the instruments, the bread, the ropes, and even such
money as we had with us, and placed them in three sacks, to which
I attached a rope of a hundred feet in length. This precaution
saved us a shock. The weight, amounting to thirty pounds,
reached the ground before us, and the balloon, thus lightened,
came softly to the ground between Wichtenbech and Hanover, after
having run twenty-five leagues in five and a half hours.
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