phor."--_Encyclopaedia Metropolitana_, Vol.
III, p. 195. Gibbons, in his notes to the _Decline and Fall_, says:
"From the remote islands of the Indian Ocean a large provision of
camphor had been imported, which is employed, with a mixture of wax,
to illuminate the palaces of the East."]

To finish the description of this place, it is not possible for ships
to get off when once they approach within a certain distance. If they
be driven thither by a wind from the sea, the wind and the current
impel them; and if they come into it when a land wind blows, which
might seem to favor their getting out again, the height of the
mountain stops the wind, and occasions a calm, so that the force of
the current carries them ashore; and what completes the misfortune is,
that there is no possibility of ascending the mountain, or of escaping
by sea.

We continued upon the shore, at the foot of the mountain, in a state
of despair, and expected death every day. On our first landing we had
divided our provisions as equally as we could, and thus every one
lived a longer or a shorter time, according to his temperance, and
the use he made of his provisions.

[Illustration: _Having balanced my cargo exactly, and fastened it well
to the raft, I went on board with two oars I had made Page 281_]

I survived all my companions; and when I buried the last I had so
little provisions remaining that I thought I could not long survive,
and I dug a grave, resolving to lie down in it because there was no
one left to pay me the last offices of respect. But it pleased God
once more to take compassion on me, and put it in my mind to go to the
bank of the river which ran into the great cavern. Considering its
probable course with great attention, I said to myself, "This river,
which runs thus underground, must somewhere have an issue. If I make a
raft, and leave myself to the current, it will convey me to some
inhabited country, or I shall perish. If I be drowned, I lose nothing,
but only change one kind of death for another."

I immediately went to work upon large pieces of timber and cables, for
I had a choice of them from the wrecks, and tied them together so
strongly that I soon made a very solid raft. When I had finished, I
loaded it with some chests of rubies, emeralds, ambergris,
rock-crystal, and bales of rich stuffs. Having balanced my cargo
exactly, and fastened it well to the raft, I went on board with two
oars that I had made, and leaving it