We observed that all the occupants were more or less of the same type, though some were fairer than others.

Indeed, we noticed certain ladies whose skin was of a most dazzling whiteness; and the darkest shade of colour which we saw was about that of a rather swarthy Spaniard.

Presently the wide river gave a sweep, and when it did so an exclamation of astonishment and delight burst from our lips as we caught our first view of the place that we afterwards knew as Milosis, or the Frowning City (from mi, which means city, and losis, a frown).
At a distance of some five hundred yards from the river's bank rose a sheer precipice of granite, two hundred feet or so in height, which had no doubt once formed the bank itself -- the intermediate space of land now utilized as docks and roadways having been gained by draining, and deepening and embanking the stream.
On the brow of this precipice stood a great building of the same granite that formed the cliff, built on three sides of a square, the fourth side being open, save for a kind of battlement pierced at its base by a little door.

This imposing place we afterwards discovered was the palace of the queen, or rather of the queens.
At the back of the palace the town sloped gently upwards to a flashing building of white marble, crowned by the golden dome which we had already observed.

The city was, with the exception of this one building, entirely built of red granite, and laid out in regular blocks with splendid roadways between.