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 along side 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