At three in the afternoon, however, the ship doubled the
reefs, it may be said, almost by a miracle.
This adventure set us thinking upon a record among the manuscripts we
had brought with us of a remarkable phenomenon existing somewhere in
these regions. In describing one of the larger islands the record says:
"By the coast of this country, toward the north, is the sea called the
Dead Sea, the water whereof runneth into the earth, and if anyone
falleth into that water he is never found more. And if shipmen go but a
little way into it they are carried rapidly downward, and never return
again. And none knoweth whither they are carried, and many have thus
passed away, and it hath never been known what became of them."
We had hitherto given little credence to this report, but our recent
experience proved the currents running between these islands to be
strong and treacherous, and warned us to be on guard against them. The
great distance we were from home, and the absence of any assistance to
be looked for from men of our own race made it doubly necessary to
consider every aspect of our voyage in order to escape the many perils
which everywhere beset us.
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