the pleasures that my riches could give me.

Having thus ended his story, Sindbad ordered that one hundred sequins
should be given to Hindbad, and the guests then withdrew; but after the
next day's feast he began the account of his sixth voyage as follows.

SIXTH VOYAGE

It must be a marvel to you how, after having five times met with
shipwreck and unheard-of perils, I could again tempt fortune and risk
fresh trouble. I am even surprised myself when I look back, but
evidently it was my fate to rove, and after a year of repose I prepared
to make a sixth voyage, regardless of the entreaties of my friends and
relations, who did all they could to keep me at home. Instead of going
by the Persian Gulf, I travelled a considerable way overland, and
finally embarked from a distant Indian port with a captain who meant to
make a long voyage. And truly he did so, for we fell in with stormy
weather which drove us completely out of our course, so that for many
days neither captain nor pilot knew where we were, nor where we were
going. When they did at last discover our position we had small ground
for rejoicing, for the captain, casting his turban upon the deck and
tearing his beard, declared that we were in the most dangerous spot upon
the whole wide sea, and had been caught by a current which was at that
moment sweeping us to destruction. It was too true! In spite of all the
sailors could do we were driven with frightful rapidity towards the foot
of a mountain, which rose sheer out of the sea, and our vessel was
dashed to pieces upon the rocks at its base, not, however, until we had
managed to scramble on shore, carrying with us the most precious of our
possessions. When we had done this the captain said to us:--

"Now we are here we may as well begin to dig our graves at once, since
from this fatal spot no shipwrecked mariner has ever returned."

This speech discouraged us much, and we began to lament over our sad
fate.

The mountain formed the seaward boundary of a large island, and the
narrow strip of rocky shore upon which we stood was strewn with the
wreckage of a thousand gallant ships, while the bones of the luckless
mariners shone white in the sunshine, and we shuddered to think how soon
our own would be added to the heap. All around, too, lay vast quantities
of the costliest merchandise, and treasures were heaped in every cranny
of the rocks, but all these things only added to the desolation of the
scene. It s