But as old Mohi very truly observed,--herein, Bello was not alone; for throughout Mardi, all strong nations, as well as all strong men, loved to govern the weak.

And those who most taunted King Bello for his political rapacity, were open to the very same charge.

So with Vivenza, a distant island, at times very loud in denunciations of Bello, as a great national brigand.

Not yet wholly extinct in Vivenza, were its aboriginal people, a race of wild Nimrods and hunters, who year by year were driven further and further into remoteness, till as one of their sad warriors said, after continual removes along the log, his race was on the point of being remorselessly pushed off the end.
Now, Bello was a great geographer, and land surveyor, and gauger of the seas.

Terraqueous Mardi, he was continually exploring in quest of strange empires.