I found that each merchant chose a particular nest, and took his chance of what he might find in it.  So I begged the one who owned the nest to which I had been carried to take as much as he would of my treasure, but he contented himself with one stone, and that by no means the largest, assuring me that with such a gem his fortune was made, and he need toil no more.  I stayed with the merchants several days, and then as they were journeying homewards I gladly accompanied them.  Our way lay across high mountains infested with frightful serpents, but we had the good luck to escape them and came at last to the seashore.  Thence we sailed to the isle of Rohat where the camphor trees grow to such a size that a hundred men could shelter under one of them with ease.  The sap flows from an incision made high up in the tree into a vessel hung there to receive it, and soon hardens into the substance called camphor, but the tree itself withers up and dies when it has been so treated.

In this same island we saw the rhinoceros, an animal which is smaller than the elephant and larger than the buffalo.  It has one horn about a cubit long which is solid, but has a furrow from the base to the tip.  Upon it is traced in white lines the figure of a man.  The rhinoceros fights with the elephant, and transfixing him with his horn carries him off upon his head, but becoming blinded with the blood of his enemy, he falls helpless to the ground, and then comes the roc, and clutches them both up in his talons and takes them to feed his young.  This doubtless astonishes you, but if you do not believe my tale go to Rohat and see for yourself.  For fear of wearying you I pass over in silence many other wonderful things which we saw in this island.  Before we left I exchanged one of my diamonds for much goodly merchandise by which I profited greatly on our homeward way.  At last we reached Balsora, whence I hastened to Bagdad, where my first action was to bestow large sums of money upon the poor, after which I settled down to enjoy tranquilly the riches I had gained with so much toil and pain.

Having thus related the adventures of his second voyage, Sindbad again bestowed a hundred sequins upon Hindbad, inviting him to come again on the following day and hear how he fared upon his third voyage.  The other guests also departed to their homes, but all returned at the same hour next day, including the porter, whose former life of hard work and poverty had already begun to seem to him like a bad dream.  Again after the feast was over did Sindbad claim the attention of his guests and began the account of his third voyage.

Third Voyage

After a very short time the pleasant easy life I led made me quite forget the perils of my two voyages.  Moreover, as I was still in the prime of life, it pleased me better to be up and doing.  So once more providing myself with the rarest and choicest merchandise of Bagdad, I conveyed it to Balsora, and set sail with other merchants of my acquaintance for distant lands.  We had touched at many ports and made much profit, when one day upon the open sea we were caught by a terrible wind which blew us completely out of our reckoning, and lasting for several days finally drove us into harbour on a strange island.