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 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,' he said,
'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 ran 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 have
ever returned to their homes again.' His discourse afflicted us
sorely, and we embraced each other with tears in our eyes,
bewailing our deplorable lot.
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