sufficiently recompensed you, by giving you your liberty; I intend to add to it considerable presents; I might engage the whole city to join, and make your fortune, but that is an honour I will enjoy alone.” To this obliging discourse I replied, “Master, God preserve you; the liberty you grant me, acquits you of all obligation towards me; and the only recompense I desire for the service I have had the good fortune to procure for you, and the inhabitants of your city, is permission to return to my country.”--“Well,” resumed he, “the monsoon will soon bring us vessels, which come to be laden with ivory. I will then send you away, with a sufficiency to pay your expences home.” I again thanked him for the liberty he had given me, and for the good will he showed me. I remained with him till the season for the monsoon, during which we made frequent excursions to the hill, and filled his magazines with ivory. All the other merchants in the city did the same, for it did not long remain a secret. The ships at length arrived, and my master having chosen that in which I was to embark, loaded it with ivory, half of which was on my own account. He did not omit an abundance of provisions for my voyage, and he obliged me to accept some rare curiosities of that country besides. After I had thanked him, as much as possible, for all the obligations he had conferred on me, I embarked. We set sail, and as the adventure which had procured me liberty was very extraordinary, it was always on my mind. We touched at several islands to procure refreshments. Our vessel having sailed from a port of the Indian Terra Firma, we went there to land: and, fearful of the dangers of the sea to Balsora, I landed the ivory, which belonged to me, and resolved to continue my journey by land. I sold my share of the cargo for a large sum of money, and purchased a variety of curious things for presents: when I was equipped, I joined a caravan of merchants. I remained a long time on the road, and suffered a great deal, but I bore all with patience, when I reflected, that I had neither tempests nor corsairs, serpents, nor any other peril, that I had before encountered, to fear. All these fatigues being at last concluded, I arrived happily at Bagdad. I went immediately and presented myself to the caliph, and gave him an account of my embassy. This prince told me, that my long absence had occasioned him some uneasiness; but that he always hoped that God would not forsake me. When I related the adventure of the elephants, he appeared much surprised, and would scarcely have believed it, had not my sincerity been well known to him. He thought this, as well as the other histories I had detailed to him, so curious, that he ordered one of his secretaries to write it in letters of gold, to be preserved in his treasury. I retired well satisfied with the presents and honours he conferred on me: and then resigned myself entirely to my family, my relations, and friends.