After some reflection, the horrid idea occurred to me that I must have been drifted to the coast of Norway, and was in the influence of the dreadful whirlpool, called the Maelstroom, and that, in a few minutes, I should be engulfed for ever, and, whilst I was thinking that such might be the case, the light revolved each fifteen seconds.  “Then it is!” cried I in despair, and, as I uttered the words, it became quite dark, and I knew that I had sunk in the vortex, and all was over.

It may appear strange to your highness, that after the first pang, occasioned by the prospect of perdition, had passed away, that so far from feeling a horror at my situation, I mocked and derided it.  I could feel no more, and I waited the result with perfect indifference.  From the marks in my nails, I afterwards found out that I was nearly six months in the interior of the earth.  At last, one day I was nearly blinded by the powerful light that poured through my tenement, and I knew that I was once more floating on the water.

* * * * *

“Allah Kebir!  God is most powerful!” exclaimed the pacha.  “Holy prophet, where was it that you came up again?”

“In the harbour of Port Royal in Jamaica.  Your highness will hardly credit it, but on my honour it is true.”

* * * * *

The heat of the sun was so great, that in a very short time the ice that surrounded me was thawed, and I found myself at liberty; but I still floated upon the body of the sea-horse, and the ice which was under the water.  The latter soon vanished, and striding the back of the dead animal, although nearly blind by the rays of the sun, and suffocated with the sudden change of climate, I waited patiently to gain the shore, which was not one mile distant; but, before I could arrive there, for the sea breeze had not yet set in, an enormous shark, well known among the English by the name of Port Royal Tom, who had daily rations from government, that by remaining in the harbour he might prevent the sailors from swimming on shore to desert, ranged up alongside of me.  I thought it hard that I should have to undergo such new dangers, after having been down the Maelstroom, but there was no help for it.  He opened his enormous jaws, and had I not immediately shifted my leg, would have taken it off.  As it was, he took such a piece out of my horse, as to render it what the sailors call lopsided.  Again he attacked it, and continued to take piece after piece off my steed, until I was afraid that he would come to the rider at last, when fortunately a boat full of black people, who were catching flying fish, perceived me and pulled to my assistance.  They took me on shore and carried me to the governor, to whom I gave a history of my adventures; but Englishmen suppose that nobody can meet with wondrous adventures except themselves.  He called me a liar, and put me in the Clink, and a pirate schooner having been lately taken and the crew executed, I was declared to have been one of them; but, as it was clearly proved that the vessel only contained thirty men, and they had already hung forty-seven, I was permitted to quit the island, which I did in a small vessel bound to America, on condition that I would work my passage.