all of a sudden, and with so much rapidity, that I lost my senses.  But when the roc was sat, and I found myself on the ground, I speedily untied the knot, and had scarcely done so, when the bird, having taken up a serpent of a monstrous length in her bill, flew straight away.  The place where it left me was a very deep valley, encompassed on all sides with mountains so high, that they seemed to reach above the clouds, and so full of steep rocks, that there was no possibility to get out of the valley.  This was a new perplexity upon me; so that, when I compared this place with the desert island the roc brought me from, I found that I had gained nothing by the change.

As I walked through this valley, I perceived that it was strewed with diamonds, some of which were of a surprising bigness.  I took a great deal of pleasure to look upon them, but speedily saw at a distance such objects as very much diminished my satisfaction, and which I could not look upon without terror; there were a great number of serpents, so big, and so long, that the least of them was capable of swallowing an elephant.  They retired in the day-time to their dens, where they hid themselves from the roc, their enemy, and did not come out but in the night-time.  I spent the day in walking about the valley, resting myself at times, in such places as I thought most commodious.  When night came on, I went into a cave, where I thought I might be in safety; I stopped the mouth of it, which was low and straight, with a great stone, to preserve me from the serpents, but not so exactly fitted as to hinder light from coming in.  I supped on part of my provisions; but the serpents, which began to appear, hissing about in the mean time, put me into such extreme fear, that you may easily imagine I did not sleep.  When day appeared, the serpents retired, and I came out of the cave trembling; I can truly say, that I walked a long time upon diamonds, without having a mind to touch any of them.  At last I sat down, and, notwithstanding my uneasiness, not having shut my eyes during the night, I fell asleep, after having ate a little more of my provisions.  But I had scarcely shut my eyes, when something that fell by me with a great noise awakened me, and this was a great piece of fresh meat; at the same time I saw several others fall down from the rocks in different places.

I always looked upon it to be a fable, when I heard mariners and others discourse of the valley of diamonds, and of the stratagems made use of by some merchants to get jewels from thence; but I found it to be true; for, in reality, those merchants come to the neighbourhood of this valley when the eagles have young ones, and throwing great joints of meat into it, the diamonds upon whose points they fall stick to them:  The eagles, which are stronger in this country than any where else, fall down with great force upon these pieces of meat, and carry them to their nests upon the top of the rocks, to feed their young ones with;