in the manner before
mentioned, I might, like Mahomet, have been suspended between heaven and
earth till doomsday."

The Grand Seignior, to whom I was introduced by the Imperial, Russian,
and French ambassadors, employed me to negotiate a matter of great
importance at Grand Cairo, and which was of such a nature that it must
ever remain a secret.

I went there in great state by land; where, having completed the
business, I dismissed almost all my attendants, and returned like a
private gentleman; the weather was delightful, and that famous river the
Nile was beautiful beyond all description; in short, I was tempted to
hire a barge to descend by water to Alexandria. On the third day of my
voyage the river began to rise most amazingly (you have all heard, I
presume, of the annual overflowing of the Nile), and on the next day it
spread the whole country for many leagues on each side! On the fifth, at
sunrise, my barge became entangled with what I at first took for shrubs,
but as the light became stronger I found myself surrounded by almonds,
which were perfectly ripe, and in the highest perfection. Upon plumbing
with a line my people found we were at least sixty feet from the ground,
and unable to advance or retreat. At about eight or nine o'clock,
as near as I could judge by the altitude of the sun, the wind rose
suddenly, and canted our barge on one side: here she filled, and I saw
no more of her for some time. Fortunately we all saved ourselves (six
men and two boys) by clinging to the tree, the boughs of which were
equal to our weight, though not to that of the barge: in this situation
we continued six weeks and three days, living upon the almonds; I need
not inform you we had plenty of water. On the forty-second day of
our distress the water fell as rapidly as it had risen, and on the
forty-sixth we were able to venture down upon _terra firma_. Our barge
was the first pleasing object we saw, about two hundred yards from the
spot where she sunk. After drying everything that was useful by the heat
of the sun, and loading ourselves with necessaries from the stores on
board, we set out to recover our lost ground, and found, by the nearest
calculation, we had been carried over garden-walls, and a variety of
enclosures, above one hundred and fifty miles. In four days, after a
very tiresome journey on foot, with thin shoes, we reached the river,
which was now confined to its banks, related our adventures to a boy,
who kindl