Upon this
resolve I took a great store of cash and buying goods and gear fit for
travel, bound them up in bales. Then I went down to the riverbank,
where I found a noble ship and brand-new about to sail equipped with
sails of fine cloth and well manned and provided. So I took passage in
her, with a number of other merchants, and after embarking our
goods, we weighed anchor the same day. Right fair was our voyage,
and we sailed from place to place and from isle to isle, and
whenever we anchored we met a crowd of merchants and notables and
customers, and we took to buying and selling and bartering.
At last Destiny brought us to an island, fair and verdant, in
trees abundant, with yellow-ripe fruits luxuriant, and flowers
fragrant and birds warbling soft descant, and streams crystalline
and radiant. But no sign of man showed to the descrier- no, not a
blower of the fire. The captain made fast with us to this island,
and the merchants and sailors landed and walked about, enjoying the
shade of the trees and the song of the birds, that chanted the praises
of the One, the Victorious, and marveling at the works of the
Omnipotent King.
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