Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 3.djvu/40

periſh in leſs than a Quarter of an Hour. Pray to God to deliver us from this Danger, we can’t eſcape if he don’t take pity on us. At theſe Words he order’d the Sails to be chang’d,——but all the Ropes broke, and the Ship, without being poſlible to help it, was carry’d by the Current to the Foot of an unacceſſible Mountain, where ſhe was run aſhore, and broke to pieces, yet ſo as we ſav’d our Lives, our Proviſions and the beſt of our Goods.

This being over, the Captain ſays to us, God has now done what he pleas’d, we may every Man dig our Grave here, and bid the World adieu, fer we are in ſo fatal a Place, that none ſhipwreck’d here did ever return to their Homes again. His Diſcourſe afflicted us mortally, and we embraced one another 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 cover’d all over with Wrecks, and by the vaſt number of Men’s Bones we ſaw every where, and which fill’d us with Horror, we concluded that abundance of People had died there. It’s alſo incredible to tell, what a Quantity of Goods and Riches we found caſt aſhore there. All thoſe Objects ſerv’d on!y to augment our Grief. Whereas in all other Places, Rivers run from their Channels into the Sea; here a great River of freſh Water 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 Chryſtal, Rubies, or other precious Stones. Here’s alſo a Sort of of Mountain of Pitch, or Bitumen that runs into the Sea, which the Fiſhes ſwallow,and then vomit up again turn’d into Ambergreeſe, and this the Waves throw out upon the Beech in great Quantities. Here grow alſo Trees, moſt of which are of Wood of Aloes, equal in Goodneſs to thoſe of Camari.

To finiſh the Deſcription of this Place, which may well be calld a Gu’ph, ſince nothing ever returns from it, it is not poſſible for a Ship to get off from it, when once they come within ſuch a diſtance of it. If they be drove thither by a Wind from the Sea, the Wind and the Current ruins them; and if they come into it, when a Land wind biows, 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