When I had finished the recital of this story to the genie, the murderer of the princess of the isle of Ebone, I made the application to himself thus: O genie! you see here that this bountiful sultan did not content himself with forgetting the design of the envious man to take away his life, but treated him kindly, and sent him back with all the favours which I just now related. In short, I made use of all my eloquence, prayed him to imitate such a good example, and to grant me pardon; but it was impossible for me to move his compassion.
All that I can do for thee, said he, is, that I will not take away thy life; do not flatter thyself that I will send thee safe and sound back. I must let you feel what I am able to do by my enchantments. With that he laid violent hands on me, and carried me across the vault of the subterraneous palace, which opened to give him passage; he flew up with me so high, that the earth seemed to be only a little white cloud; from thence he came down again like lightning, and alighted upon the ridge of a mountain.
There he took up a handful of earth, and pronounced, or rather muttered, some words which I did not understand, and threw it upon me. Leave the shape of a man, says he to me, and take on that of an ape. He vanished immediately, and left me alone, transformed into an ape, overwhelmed with sorrow in a strange country, not knowing if I was near unto or far from my father's dominions.
I went down from the height of the mountain, and came into a plain country, which took me a month's time to travel through, and then I came to a coast of the sea. It happened then to be a great calm, and I espied a vessel about half a league from the shore; I would not lose this good opportunity, but broke off a large branch from a tree, which I carried with me to the sea-side, and set myself astride upon it, with a stick in each hand to serve me for oars.
I launched out in this posture, and advanced near the ship. When I was near enough to be known, the seamen and passengers that were upon the deck thought it an extraordinary spectacle, and all of them looked upon me with great astonishment. In the mean time, I got aboard, and laying hold of a rope, I jumped on the deck, and, having lost my speech, I found myself in very great perplexity; and indeed the risk I ran then was nothing less than when I was at the mercy of the genie.
The merchants, being both superstitious and scrupulous, believed I should occasion some mischief to their voyage, if they received me: therefore, says one, I will knock him down with an handspike; says another, I will shoot an arrow through his guts; says a third, Let us throw him into the sea. Some of them would not have failed to have executed their design, if I had not got to the side where the captain was; when I threw myself at his feet, and took him by the coat in a begging posture. This action, together with the tears which he saw gush from my eyes, moved his compassion; so that he took me into his protection, threatened to be avenged on him that should do me the least hurt; and he himself made very much of me, And on my part, though I had no power to speak, I did, by my gestures, show all possible signs of gratitude.
The wind that succeeded the calm was gentle and favourable, and did not alter for five days, but brought us safe to the port of a fine town, well peopled, and of great trade, where we came to an anchor. It was so much the more considerable, that it was the capital city of a powerful state.
Our vessel was speedily surrounded with an infinite number of boats, full of people, who either came to congratulate their friends upon their safe arrival, or to inquire for those they had left behind them in the country from whence they came, or out of curiosity to see a ship that came from a far country.
Amongst the rest, some officers came on board, desiring to speak with the merchants in the name of the sultan. The merchants appearing, one of the officers told them, The sultan, our master, hath commanded us to acquaint you that he is glad of your safe arrival, and prays you to take the trouble, every one of you, to write some lines upon this roll of paper; and, that his design may be understood, you must know that he had a prime vizier, who, besides a great capacity to manage affairs, understood writing to the highest perfection. This minister is lately dead, at which the sultan is very much troubled, and since he can never behold his writing without admiration, he has made a solemn vow not to give the place to any man but to him that can write as well as he did. Abundance of people have presented their writings; but to this day nobody in all this empire has been judged worthy to supply the vizier's place.
Those merchants that believed they could write well enough to pretend to this high dignity, wrote, one after another, what they thought fit. After they had done, I advanced and took the roll out of the gentleman's hand; but all the people, especially the merchants, cried out, he will tear it, or throw it into the sea, till they saw how properly I held the roll, and made a sign that I would write in my turn. Then they were of another opinion, and their fears turned into admiration. However, since they had never seen an ape that could write, nor could be persuaded that I was more ingenious than other apes, they offered to snatch the roll out of my hand; but the captain took my part once more. Let him alone, says he; suffer him to write. If he only scribbles the paper, I promise you that I will punish him upon the spot. If, on the contrary, he writes well, as I hope he will, because I never saw an ape so handy and ingenious, and so apprehensive of every thing, I do declare that I will own him as my son. I had one that had not by far the wit that he has. Perceiving that no man did any more oppose my design, I took the pen, and wrote, before I had done, six sorts of hands used among the Arabians, and each specimen containing an extemporary distich or quatram in praise of the sultan. My writings did not only outdo that of the merchants, but I dare say they had not before seen any such fair writing in that country. When I had done, the officers took the roll, and carried it to the sultan.