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Sinbad was a very rich man. He had a beautiful house in the best part of the city.

And when the sun was hot in the afternoon, he and his friends sat under the trees in the garden.

I'm rich, he told his friends. But I haven't always been rich. I have been very poor,

often unhappy, and very often afraid. I was very much afraid on my first voyage. I'll tell you

about it. I was a young man at the time. Like many young men, I lived foolishly, and soon I had

much money. I must do something to get more money, I told myself. So I sold my house and all my

things for 3 ,000 DROMs. With that money I bought a lot of the best cloth and other goods. I took

them to Basra. There was an Arab ship in the river there, and I spoke to his captain.

We're going to sail next week, he told me. There will be six merchants with their goods on the ship,

and we shall sail to the countries and islands of the Far East. There the merchants will sell their

goods. They will buy the jewels and other rich things of the East, and they will sell them in

their own countries when we come back here. Can you take one more merchant, I asked? Then I added,

I have only a few boxes of goods, and I'll give you most of the money I get.

Yes, I can take you, the captain said. I prepared my goods in the next week. We sailed down the Great

River, the Shottalarab, and through the Gulf, and then toward the East. We sailed for many days and

nights. We stopped at cities and islands to sell and buy goods. One day we came to a very beautiful

island. I don't know this island at all, the captain said, but it looks good. It may have good water.

He brought the ship very near the land, and a lot of us went on to the island to look for water and

to walk about. The seaman took big water pots from the ship with them. I wanted to see the other

side of the island, and I began to walk away from the ship. Some of the other merchants found wood,

and they made a fire on the land not far from the ship. Then two things happened at the same time.

The island moved, and the captain shouted, run, run to the ship, it isn't an island at all.

It's a great fish. It has been sleeping on top of the water for years, and so plants have grown on it,

but your fire has woken it. Run! We ran, but I had a long way to run. Before I could get to the ship,

the island fish went down, far into the sea. At the same time, a great wind came. It took the ship

far away. When at last I got to the top of the water, I couldn't even see the ship. Am I gonna

die here alone in the great sea, I thought? But God is good. I saw a big water pot near me,

and I put my arms around it. The water pot saved me, but it was hard to stay with it. The sea threw

us about so much. The night came, the wind drove me with the water pot all that night,

and all the next day, and the next night. In the morning I looked around me.

This is my last day, I thought. I'm cold and ill, and only just alive. My fingers are dead and my arms

will soon be dead, too. I'll lose the water pot and go down forever into the sea. And then I saw it.

Land! The wind took me with the water pot to the land, and the sea threw me under a tree there.

After that, I don't remember things well. I think I couldn't move for two days. I must find food and

water, I told myself. I'll die if I don't. So I tried to stand up. I couldn't. I looked at my feet,

and I saw the places where fish had bitten them. They'll be better in time, I thought. But I must

wash them in clean water. I must find water. I moved myself along the ground with my arms,

and at last I found a place where one fruit tree grew by a little river. I stayed there for a few

years. My feet grew better, and I myself grew stronger. It was time to move. I took some fruit

with me, but I couldn't take any water. There will be other rivers, I thought. But there was no

other drinking water, there were no other fruit trees. I walked along beside the sea. I saw no

houses, no people, nothing. After walking for three days, I began to be afraid.

Am I alone? I asked myself. It would land without people. Is it a place with no beasts,

no birds, no living thing? But what's that?