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Obſerving that he look’d on my Jewels with Pleaſure; and view’d the moſt remarkable among them, one after another, I fell proſtrate at his Feet, and took the Liberty to ſay to him, Sir, not only my Perſon is at your Majeſty’s Service, but the Cargo of the Float, and I would beg of you to diſpoſe of it as your own. He anſwer’d me with a Smile, Sindbad. I will take care not to covet any thing of yours, nor to take any thing from you that God has given you; far from leſſening your Wealth, I deſign to augment it, and will not let you go out of my Dominions without Marks of my Liberality, All the Anſwer I return’d was Prayers for the Proſperity of that Prince, and Commendations of his Generofity and Bounty. He charg’d one of his Officers to take care of me, and ordered People to ſerve me at his own Charge. The Officer was very faithful in the Execution of his Orders, and made all the Goods to be carried to the Lodgings provided for me.

I went every Day at a ſet Hour to make my Court to the King, and ſpent the reſt of my time in ſeeing the City, and what was moſt worthy of my Curioſity.

The Iſle of[1] Serendib is ſituated juſt under the Equinoctial Line, ſo that the Days and Nights there are always of Twelve Hours each, and the Iſland is Eighty[2] Paraſangues in Length, and as many in Breadth.

The Capital City ſtands in the end of a fine Valley, form’d by a Mountain in the Middle of the Iſland, which is the higheſt in the World. It is ſeen three Days Sail off at Sea. There are Rubies, and ſeveral ſorts of Minerals in it, and all the Rocks for the moſt part Emerald, a Metallick Stone made uſe of to cut and ſmooth other precious Stones. There grows all ſorts of rare Plants and Trees, eſpecially Cedar and Cocoes. There’s alſo a Pearl Fiſhing in the Mouth of its River; and in ſome of its Valleys there are found Diamonds. I made, by way of Devotion, a Pilgrimage to the Place whither Adam was confin’d after his Baniſhment from Paradiſe, and had the Curioſity to go to the Top of it.

When

  1. ↑ Geographers place it on this ſide the Line in the firſt Climate.
  2. ↑ The Eaſtern Geographers make a Paraſangue longer than a French League.
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