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.