produce of my first voyage, that might
have sufficed me all my life. But all this was in vain, and my
repentance came too late. At last I resigned myself to the will of
God. Not knowing what to do, I climbed to the top of a lofty tree,
from whence I looked about on all sides, to see if I could discover
anything that could give me hope. When I gazed toward the sea I could
see nothing but sky and water; but looking over the land, I beheld
something white; and coming down, I took what provision I had left and
went toward it, the distance being so great that I could not
distinguish what it was.

As I approached, I thought it to be a white dome, of a prodigious
height and extent; and when I came up to it, I touched it, and found
it to be very smooth. I went round to see if it was open on any side,
but saw it was not, and that there was no climbing up to the top, as
it was so smooth. It was at least fifty paces round.

By this time the sun was about to set, and all of a sudden the sky
became as dark as if it had been covered with a thick cloud. I was
much astonished at this sudden darkness, but much more when I found it
was occasioned by a bird of a monstrous size, that came flying toward
me. I remembered that I had often heard mariners speak of a miraculous
bird called the roc,[52] and conceived that the great dome which I so
much admired must be its egg. In short, the bird alighted, and sat
over the egg. As I perceived her coming, I crept close to the egg, so
that I had before me one of the legs of the bird, which was as big as
the trunk of a tree. I tied myself strongly to it with my turban, in
hopes that the roc next morning would carry me with her out of this
desert island. After having passed the night in this condition, the
bird flew away as soon as it was daylight, and carried me so high that
I could not discern the earth; she afterward descended with so much
rapidity that I lost my senses. But when I found myself on the ground,
I speedily untied the knot, and had scarcely done so, when the roc,
having taken up a serpent of a monstrous length in her bill, flew
away.

The spot where it left me was encompassed on all sides by mountains,
that seemed to reach above the clouds, and so steep that there was no
possibility of getting out of the valley. This was a new perplexity;
so that when I compared this place with the desert island from which
the roc had brought me, I found that I had gained nothing by the
change.