Page:History of Sindbad the sailor.pdf/27

27 I was extremely rejoiced to be freed thus from this cursed old fellow, and walked upon the banks of the sea, where I met with the crew of a ship that had cast anchor, to take in water and refresh themselves. They were extremely surprized to see me, and to hear the particulars of my adventures. You fell, said they, into the hands of the old man of the sea, and are the first that ever escaped strangling by him. He never left those he had once made himself master of till he destroyed them, and he has made this island famous by the number of men he has slain, so that the merchants and mariners who landed upon it, dared not to advance into the island but in numbers together.

One of the merchants of the ship who had taken me in friendship, obliged me to go along with him, and carried me to a place appointed for a retreat for foreign merchants. He gave me a bag, and having recommended me to some people of the town, who used to gather, he desired them to take me with them to do the like: "Go: says he, follow them, and do as you see them do, and don't separate from them, otherwise you endanger your life." Having thus spoke, he gave me provisions for the journey, and I went with them.

We came to a great forest of trees, extremely straight and tall, and their trunks were so smooth, that it was impossible for any man to climb up the branches, that bore the fruit. All the trees were cocoas-trees, and when we entered the forest we saw a great number of apes of several sizes, that fled as soon as they us, and climbing up to the tops of the trees, with surprizing swiftness.

The merchants with whom I was, gathered stones, and threw them at the apes on the tops of the trees. I did the same, and the apes out of revenge threw coco-nuts at us as fast, and with such gestures as sufficiently testified their anger and resentment; we gathered up the cocoas, and