92 THE FOURTH VOYAGE OF

to do all the day and the next night; when-
ever I was hungry, eating of the vegetables.
In this manner I proceeded for the space
of seven days with their nights; and on the
morning of the eighth day, I cast a glance, and
beheld a faint object in the distance. So I
went towards it, and ceased not to proceed
until I came up to it, after sunset; and I
looked at it with a scrutinising eye, while I
was yet distant from it, and with a fearful
heart in consequence of what I had suffered
first and after, and, lo, it was a party of men
gathering pepper. And when I approached
them, and they saw me, they hastened to me,
and came to me and surrounded me on every
side, saying to me, ‘“‘ Who art thou, and whence
hast thou come?” JI answered them, ‘ Know
ye, O people, that I am a poor foreigner.”
And I informed them of my whole case, and
of the horrors and distresses that had _be-
fallen me, and what I had suffered; where-
upon they said, “By Allah, this is a wonderful
thing! But how didst thou escape from the
blacks, and how didst thou pass by them in
this island, when they are a numerous people,
and eat men, and no one is safe from them,
nor can any pass by them?” So I acquainted