The merchants with whom I was, continued Sindbad, gathered stones,
and threw them at the apes on the top of the trees. I did the same,
and the apes, out of revenge, threw cocoa-nuts at us as fast, and
with such gestures, as sufficiently testified their anger and
resentment: we gathered up the cocoa-nuts, and from time to time
threw stones to provoke the apes; so that by this stratagem we
filled our bags with cocoa-nuts, which it had been impossible for us
to have done otherwise.
When we had gathered our number, we returned to the city, where the
merchant who sent me to the forest gave me the value of the cocoas I
brought: Go on, said he, and do the like every day, until you have
got money enough to carry you home. I thanked him for his good
advice, and insensibly gathered together so many cocoa-nuts as
amounted to a considerable sum.
The vessel in which I came, sailed with merchants, who loaded her
with cocoa-nuts. I expected the arrival of another, which landed
speedily for the like loading. I embarked on board the same all the
cocoa-nuts that belonged to me, and when she was ready to sail, I
went and took leave of the merchant who had been so kind to me; but
he could not embark with me, because he had not finished his
business.
We set sail towards the islands, [37] where pepper grows in great
plenty. From thence we went to the isle of Comari, [38] where the
best sort of wood of aloes grows, and whose inhabitants have made it
an inviolable law to themselves, to drink no wine, nor to suffer any
place of debauch. I exchanged my cocoa, in those two islands, for
pepper and wood of aloes, and went, with other merchants, a pearl
fishing. [39] I hired divers, who fetched me up those that were very
large and pure. I embarked joyfully, in a vessel that happily
arrived at Balsora; from thence I returned to Bagdad, where I made
vast sums of my pepper, wood of aloes, and pearls. I gave the tenth
of my gains in alms, as I had done upon my return from other
voyages, and endeavoured to ease myself from my fatigues by
diversions of all sorts.
When Sindbad had finished his story, he ordered one hundred sequins
to Hindbad, who retired with all the other guests; but next morning,
the same company returned to dine with rich Sindbad, who, after
having treated them as formerly, demanded audience, and gave the
following account of his sixth voyage:
The sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor.
Gentlemen, said he, you long, without doubt, to know, how after
being shipwrecked five times, and escaping so many dangers, I could
resolve again to try my fortune, and expose myself to new hardships:
I am astonished at it myself when I think on it, and must certainly
have been induced to it by my stars. But be that as it will, after a
year’s rest, I prepared for a sixth voyage, notwithstanding the
entreaties of my kindred and friends, who did all that was possible
to prevent me.
Instead of taking my way by the Persian gulf, I travelled once more
through several provinces of Persia and the Indies, and arrived at a
sea-port, where I embarked on board a ship, the captain of which was
resolved on a long voyage.
It was very long indeed, but at the same time so unfortunate, that
the captain and pilot lost their course, and knew not where they
were. They found it at last, but we had no reason to rejoice at it.
We were all seized with extraordinary fear, when we saw the captain
quit his post, and cry out. He threw off his turban, pulled the hair
of his beard, and beat his head like a madman. We asked him the
reason, and he answered, that he was in the most dangerous place in
all the sea. A rapid current carries the ship 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 does
not take pity on us. At these words, he ordered the sails to be
changed; but all the ropes broke, and the ship, without its being
possible to help it, was carried by the current to the foot of an
inaccessible mountain, where she run ashore, and was broken to
pieces, yet so that we saved our lives, our provisions, and the best
of our goods.
This being over, the captain said to us, God has done what pleased
him; we may every man dig our grave here, and bid the world adieu;
for we are all in so fatal a place, that none shipwrecked here did
ever return to their homes again. His discourse afflicted us sorely,
and we embraced each other with tears in our eyes, bewailing our
deplorable lot.
The mountain, at the foot of which we were cast, was the coast of a
very long and large island. This coast was covered all over with
wrecks, and by the vast number of men’s bones we saw every where,
and which filled us with horror, we concluded, that abundance of
people had died there. It is also incredible to tell, what a
quantity of goods and riches we found cast ashore there. All those
objects served only to augment our grief. Whereas, in all other
places, rivers run from their channels into the sea, here a great
river of fresh water [40] runs out of the sea into a dark cave,
whose entrance is very high and large. What is most remarkable in
this place is, that the stones of the mountain are of crystal,
rubies, or other precious stones. Here is also a sort of fountain of
pitch or bitumen, [41] that runs into the sea, which the fishes
swallow, and then vomit it up again, turned into ambergris; and this
the waves throw up on the beach in great quantities. Here also grow
trees, most of which are wood of aloes, equal in goodness to those
of Comari.
To finish the description of this place, which may well be called a
gulf, since nothing ever returns from it --it is not possible for
ships to get off from it, when once they come within such a distance
of it. If they be driven thither by a wind from the sea, the wind
and the current ruin them; and it they come into it when a land-wind
blows, which might seem to favour their getting out again, the
height of the mountain stops the wind, and occasions a calm, so that
the force of the current runs them ashore, where they are broken to
pieces, as ours was; and that which completes the misfortune is,
that there is no possibility to get to the top of the mountain, or
to get out any manner of way.
We continued upon the shore like men out of their senses, and
expected death every day. At first, we divided our provisions as
equally as we could, and thus every one lived a longer or shorter
time, according to their temperance, and the use they made of their
provisions.
Scheherazade perceiving day, left off speaking, but next night she
resumed the story as follows: