When I had finished, Ethbaal, who had never flagged for one moment in his attention, raised his hands to the stars in the heavens above, and swore by all the gods that my chronicle ought to be registered in letters of gold. He went on to tell me that the cargo I had sent from Gades and all my messages had been duly received at Tyre; that everyone had come to the conclusion we must all have been drowned in the ocean; and that nothing had been heard about Bodmilcar, who, it was taken for granted, had been punished for his treachery by the direct visitation of the gods.
I offered Ethbaal a present of some very fine pearls; he at first refused to take any acknowledgment at all of his attention to us, but I induced him ultimately to accept the gift. The damages to his gaoul were only to the rigging, and did not affect the hull; and as we had taken it into tow, there was nothing to cause us any anxiety, or to prevent us from retiring to rest.
Next morning, in the course of conversation with Ethbaal, Himilco asked:
"Have you had any fighting, captain, since you have been out?"
"Fighting? no, why?" he replied.
"Because if you continue in our company you will soon find that fighting is our destiny. We are always fighting; if we are not fighting men,—and that we are doing pretty frequently,—we are fighting the beasts of the earth; and if we are not fighting beasts, we are fighting against wind and waves. Go where we will we attract the fightings, just like a headland attracts the storms. Fighting is our luck; so I just warn you, you had better be on the look-out."
Ethbaal laughed. He said he hoped that we had come to the end of our adventures in that way, and that we should have a prosperous voyage to Ophir; then turning to me, he asked what I expected to procure at Ophir, as I had already a large supply of gold, which was the commodity ordinarily obtained there.
I reminded him that I had a much larger quantity of amber than I really wanted, and that in return for a portion of it I intended to lay in a stock of sandal-wood and spices, peacocks and apes, and anything else that the country could offer.
The Arabian coast was rocky, but we sailed along it without difficulty for six days, at the end of which we arrived at Havilah, the principal city of the kingdom of Ophir and Sheba. Unlike the Phœnician seaports, it has no quays, fortresses, nor arsenals, but it is well-sheltered, and forms a commodious trade-harbour; the town rises like an amphitheatre upon the surrounding heights, and the white terraces, with their brown and red domes, broken by clusters of palm-trees, stand out in pleasing contrast to the deep-blue sky, while the domes of the temples are of gilded bronze, and glitter with dazzling brightness in the sunlight. Although the people are indifferent seamen, yet it is to the sea that they owe their prosperity, their city forming the mart between our own country and the distant Indies.
The Queen herself takes a keen interest in all matters connected with navigation, and her palace is situated close to the sea-shore. It is built of cedar, and ornamented with trellis-work and open balconies; the walls are all adorned with paintings, inlaid with precious stones, or hung with curtains of variegated stuffs.