I gripped it for the sweetness of life
and, bestriding it like one riding, paddled with my feet like oars,
whilst the waves tossed me as in sport right and left. Meanwhile the
captain made sail and departed with those who had reached the ship,
regardless of the drowning and the drowned. And I ceased not following
the vessel with my eyes till she was hid from sight and I made sure of
death.
Darkness closed in upon me while in this plight, and the winds and
waves bore me on all that night and the next day, till the tub brought
to with me under the lee of a lofty island with trees overhanging
the tide. I caught hold of a branch and by its aid clambered up onto
the land, after coming nigh upon death. But when I reached the
shore, I found my legs cramped and numbed and my feet bore traces of
the nibbling of fish upon their soles, withal I had felt nothing for
excess of anguish and fatigue. I threw myself down on the island
ground like a dead man, and drowned in desolation, swooned away, nor
did I return to my senses till next morning, when the sun rose and
revived me. But I found my feet swollen, so made shift to move by
shuffling on my breech and crawling on my knees, for in that island
were found store of fruits and springs of sweet water.
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