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“ The sun was set, and while we were in this lamentable condition just now mentioned, the gate of the apartment opened with a great noise, and there came out the horrible figure of a black man, as high as a tall palm tree. At the sight of so frightful a giant, we lost all sense, and lay as dead men. ”

“ As I was one day at the port of the city, a ship arrived, and as soon as they began to unload her, and the merchants on board ordered their goods to be carried into the magazine, I cast my eye upon some bales, and perceived them to be the same I had embarked at Balsora. I knew the captain, but being persuaded that he believed me to be drowned, I asked him whose bales they were? He replied that they belonged to a merchant in Bagdad, called Sindbad, who came to sea with him, who was drowned. ”

“ We beheld all this with a mortal fear, without daring to offer at defending ourselves, or to speak one word to divert them from their mischievous design. In short they took down our sails, cut the cable, and hauling to the shore, made us all get out, and afterwards carried the ship into another island, from whence they came. All travellers carefully avoided that island, where they left us, it being very dangerous to stay there, for a reason you shall hear anon, but we were forced to bear our affliction with patience. ”

“ After this, I immediately made a float, and loaded it with rubies emeralds and rich stuff, and so resigning myself to the will of God, entered the cave; which I had no sooner done, then I lost all light, and the stream carried me I know not whither. Thus I sailed some days in perfect darkness, and once found the arch so low that it well nigh broke my head, which made me very cautious afterwards of avoiding the like danger. All this while to support nature; yet notwithstanding this frugality, all my provisions were spent. ”

“ I took the advice of such as I thought most capable to give it me; and, resolving to improve what money I had, I went to Balsora, a port on the Persian Gulph, and embarked with several merchants, who joined with me to fit out a ship on purpose.
In our voyage we touched at several islands, where we sold or exchanged our goods. One day, whilst under sail, we were becalmed near a little island, even almost with the surface of the water which resembled a green meadow. The captain ordered his sails to be furled, and suffered such persons as had a mind to land upon the Island, among whom I was one. ”

“ I continued this game for two months, and killed an elephant every day, getting sometime upon one tree, and sometimes upon another. One morning, as I looked for the elephants, I perceived with an extreme amazement, that instead of passing by me across the forest as usual, they stopped, and came to me with a horrible noise, in such numbers that the earth was covered with them, and shook under me. ”

“ The tempest continued several days, and brouhgt us before the port of an island where the captain was very unwilling to enter, but we were obliged to cast anchor there. When we had furled out sails, the captain told us, that his and some other neighbouring islands, were inhabited by hairy savages who would speedily attack us and, though they were but dwarfs, yet our misfortune was such, that we must make no resistance, for they were more in number than the locusts; and if we happened to kill one of them, they would all fall upon us and destroy us. ”

“ We marched altogether, till we came to the city of Serendib, for it was in that island where I landed. The blacks presented me to their king, I approached his throne, and saluted him as I used to do the kings of the Indies; that is to say, I prostrated myself at his feet and kissed the earth. The prince ordered me to rise up, received me with an obliging air and made me come up and sit down near him He first asked me my name, and I answered Sindbad the Sailor, because of the many voyages I had undertaken, and that I was a citizen of Bagdad. ”

“ The blacks fed us afterwards with rice prepared with oil of cocoas and my comrades who had lost their reason, eat of it greedily. I eat of it also, but very sparingly. The blacks gave us that herb at first on purpose to deprive us of our senses, that we might not be aware of the sad destiny for us; for being cannibals, their design was to eat us as soon as we grew fat. They did accordingly eat my comrades who were not sensible of their condition; but my senses being entire, you may easily guess, that instead of growing fat as the rest did. I grew leaner every day. ”

“ The island was very well peopled, plentiful of every thing, and the capital was a place of great trade. This agreeable place of retreat was very comfortable to me after my misfortune, and the kindness of this generous prince towards me completed my satisfaction. ”

“ My father left me a considerable estate, most part of which I spent during my youth; but I perceived my error, and called to mind. that riches were perishable, and quickly consumed by such bad husbands as myself. I farther considered, that, by my irregular way of living. I wretehedly mispent my time, which is the most valuable thing in the world. Being struck with those reflections, I gathered together the ruins of my estate, and sold all my moveables in the public market to the highest bidder Then I entered into a contract with some merchants that traded by sea. ”

“ I grew weary of an idle life. My inclination to trade revived. I bought goods proper for the commerce I designed, and put to sea a second time with merchants of known probity. We embarked on board a good ship, and after recommending ourselves to God. set sail: we traded from island to island. and exchanged commodities with great profit. One day we landed in an isle covered with several sorts of fruit tree, but so desart, that we could neither see man nor horse upon it We went to take a little fresh air in the meadows, and along the streams that watered them. ”

“ I confess, that by exposing ourselves to the fury of the waves, we run a risk of losing our lives: but if we do, is it not better to be buried in the sea than in the entrails of this monster.” My advice was relished, and we made floats capable of carrying three persons each.
We returned to the palace towards the evening, and the giant arrived a little while after. We were forced to conclude on seeing another of our comrades roasted: but at last revenged ourselves on the brutish giant thus. ”

“ Having thought of a project for that end I communicated the same to my comrades, who improved it: “Brethren, said I. you know there is a great deal of timber floating upon the coast: if you will be advised by me, let us make several floats of it that may carry us, and when they are done, leave them there, till we think fit to make use of them. In the mean time, we will execute the design to deliver ourselves from the giant, and if it succeed, we may stay here with patience till some ships pass by, that they may carry us out of this fatal island ”

“ A rapid currunt carries it along with it. and we shall all of us perish in less than a quarter of an hour. Pray to God to deliver us from this danger, we cannot escape it, if he don’t take pity on us. At these words he ordered the sails to be changed.—but all the ropes broke, and the ship, without being possible to help it, was carried by the currunt to the foot of an inaccessible mountain where she ran ashore and broke to pieces, yet (illegible text) as we saved our lives, our provisions, and the boat of our goods. ”

“ I afterwards took the largest peace of meat I could find, tied it close round me with the cloth of my turban, and then laid myself upon the ground, with my face downward, the bag of diamonds being tied fast to my girdle, that it could not possibly drop off.
I had scarce laid me down, till the eagles came, each of them seized a piece of meat, and one of the strongest having taken me up, with the piece of meat on my back, carried me to his nest on the top of the mountain. The merchants fell straightway a shouting to frighten the eagles ”

“ You fell, said they, into the hands of the old man of the sea, and are the first that ever escaped strangling by him. He never left those he had once made himself master of till he destroyed them, and he has made this island famous by the number of men he has slain, so that the merchants and mariners who landed upon it, dared not to advance into the island but in numbers together.
One of the merchants of the ship who had taken me in friendship, obliged me to go along with him, and carried me to a place appointed for a retreat for foreign merchants. ”

“ I prayed the king to allow me to return to my country, which he granted in the most obliging and and most honourable manner. He would needs force a rich present upon me; and when I went to take my leave of him, he gave me one much more considerable, and at the same time charged me with a letter for Caliph Haroun Alrachid.
The ship set sail, and after a long and very successful voyage we landed at Balsora, from whence I went to Bagdad, where the first thing I did was to acquit myself of my commission. ”

“ The old man perceiving the effect which this drink had upon me, and that I carryed him with more ease than before, made a sign for me to give him some of it. I gave him the calabash, and the liquor pleasing his palate, he drank it all off. There being enough of it for to fuddle him he became drunk immediately, and the fumes getting up into his head, he began to sing after his manner, and to dance with his breech upon my shoulders. ”

“ I always looked upon it to be a fable, when I heard mariners and others discourse of the valley of diamonds, and of the stratagem made use of by some merchants to get jewels from thence, but then I found it to be true. For, in reality, those merchants came to the neighbourhood of this valley, when the eagles have young ones, and throwing great joints of meat into this valley. the diamonds upon whose points they fall. stick to them; the eagles, which are amazingly strong in this country. ”

“ I was not, however, very well satisfied with my condition, and therefore designed to make my escape on the first occasion, and to return to Bagdad; which my sent settlement, how advantageous soever, could not make me forget.
There is a law which is established in this island, and which is always observed inviolably. The living husband is interred with the dead wife, and the living wife with the dead husband. ”

“ Having thus spoke, he gave me provisions for the journey, and I went with them.
We came to a great forest of trees, extremely straight and tall, and their trunks were so smooth, that it was impossible for any man to climb up the branches, that bore the fruit. All the trees were cocoas-trees, and when we entered the forest we saw a great number of apes of several sizes, that fled as soon as they (illegible text) us, and climbing up to the tops of the trees, with surprizing swiftness.
The merchants with whom I was, gathered stones, and threw them at the apes on the tops of the trees. ”

“ Those blacks, replied they, eat men, and by what miracle did you escape their cruelty? I told them the same story I now tell you, at which they were wonderfully surprised.
I staid with them till they had gathered their quantity of pepper, and then sailed with them to the island from whence they came. They presented me to their king, who was a good prince, he had the patience to (illegible text) the relation of my adventure, which surprised him ”