The Dangerous Island (The Sixth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor)
It must be an amazing thing for you
that, how after
having five times met with wreckage of
the ship and
unheard of the danger, I could again
appeal to the destiny and risk a more
few fresh troubles. I am
even surprised to see myself when I look back
to those days,
but clearly it was my luck to travel,
and after a year when I relaxed I
decided to
make a sixth voyage, in spite of the
request of my friends and relatives,
who did all they could to keep me at
home and stop me from going so.
Instead of going by the Persian
Gulf, I traveled a extensive way overland and
finally go aboard from a distant Indian port
with a captain who intended to make a long
voyage.
And he truly did so, for we met with a stormy
weather which drove us completely out of our
path, so that for many of the days neither
the captain
nor the pilot knew where we were, and even
they do not know where we were
going. When they at last discover our
position we had small ground for
satisfaction, for
the captain, casting his turban upon the
floor and scratching his beard, declared that we were in
the most dangerous spot upon the whole wide sea,
and had been caught by a stream which was at
that minute trying us to take to destruction.
It was also true! In spite of all the sailors
could do we were driven with fearsome
quickness
towards the bottom of a mountain, which rose
complete
out of the sea, and our vessel was broken into
pieces upon the rocks at its base, not, however,
until we had managed to rush on the shore,
carrying with us the most precious of our
belongings. When we had done this the captain
said to us:
"Now we are here, so we may as well begin to dig our
burial place at once, since from this
terrible spot none of the mariner has ever returned."
This speech depressed us much more than
before, and we began to
grieve over our bad luck.
The mountain formed the seaside boundary of a
large island, and the narrow strip of rocky
shore upon which we stood was full with the
remains of a thousand huge ships, while the
bones of the unlucky mariners shone white in
the sunshine, and we were alarm to think how soon
our own would be added to this collection of
the bones of unlucky mariners.
All around, also, there lay a huge quantity of the
costliest products, and treasures which were
gathered
in every gap of the rocks, but all these
things only added to the bleakness of the
scene. It struck me as a very strange thing that
a river of clear fresh water, which gushed out
from the mountain not far from where we stood,
instead of flowing into the sea, turned off, and flowed out
of the path under a natural arcade of the rocks, and
when I went more deeply to inspect it, I
found more closely
that inside the cave the walls were thick with
diamonds, and rubies, and collections of crystal, and
the floor was covered with lots of other
precious and valuable merchandise.
Here, then, upon this deserted shore we
abandoned ourselves to our luck, for there was
no possibility of ascending the mountain, and if a
ship had appeared it could only have shared our
unlucky fates. The first thing our captain did was to
divide equally amongst us all the food that we
had overcome, and then the length of each man's
life depended on the time he could make his
portion last. I myself could live upon a very
little of it.
However, on the other hand, by the time I had buried the last
of my companions my store of requirements was so
small that I hardly thought I should live long
enough to dig my own burial place, which I
started about
to do, while I apologize extremely for the
wandering outlook which was always bringing me into
such a path, and thought longingly of all the
relieve and luxury that I had left. But luckily
for me the fancy took me to stand once more
beside the river where it plunged out of sight
in the depths of the cavern, and as I did so an
idea struck to my mind.
This river which hid itself underground
doubtless appear again at some distant spot.
Why should I not build a raft and trust myself
to its swiftly flowing waters? If I might
die
before I could reach the light of day once more
I should be no in this worse condition than I was now, for
death was fixed in my eyes , while there was
always the possibility that, as I was born under
a lucky star, I might find myself safe and sound
in some desirable land. I decided at any rate to
risk it, and speedily built myself a strong raft
of drift-wood with strong rope, of which enough
and to spare lay marked upon the beach.
I then prepared many of the packages of rubies,
emeralds, rock crystal, ambergris, and precious
stuffs, and loaded them upon my raft, being
careful to safeguard the balance, and then I
seated myself upon it, having two small
sticks
that I had laid ready to my hand, and
loosed the rope which held it to the bank. Once
out in the stream my raft flew swiftly under
the gloomy arcade, and I found myself in total
darkness, carried smoothly forward by the rapid
flow of the river.
On I went as it seemed to me for many nights and
days. Once the path became so small that I
had a slight escape of being crushed against
the rocky roof, and after that I took the
precaution of lying flat upon my precious
bales. Though I only ate what was absolutely
necessary to keep myself alive, the expected moment came when,
after swallowing my last morsel of food, I began
to wonder if I must after all die of hunger.
Then, I was worn out with worry and
weariness.