As I had already formed a project of that nature, I now communicated it to my fellow-sufferers, who approved of it. “My friends,” said I then, “you know that there is a great deal of wood on the sea-shore: if you will take my advice, we can make some rafts, and when they are finished we will leave them in a proper place, till we can find an opportunity to make use of them. In the mean time we can put in execution the design I proposed to you, to deliver ourselves from the giant; if it succeeds, we may wait here with patience till some vessel passes, by means of which we may quit this fatal isle; if, on the contrary, we miss our aim, we shall have recourse to our rafts, and put to sea. I own, that in exposing ourselves to the fury of the waves on such fragile barks, we run a great hazard of losing our lives; but if we are destined to perish, is it not preferable to meet with a watery grave than to be buried in the entrails of that monster who has already devoured two of our companions?” My advice was approved by all, and we immediately built some rafts large enough to contain three persons on each.
We returned to the palace towards evening, and the giant arrived a short time after us. Again one of our party was sacrificed to his inhuman appetite. But we were soon revenged of his cruelty: after he had finished his horrible meal, he as usual laid himself down to sleep; as soon as we heard him snore, nine of the most courageous amongst us, and myself, took each a spit, and heating the points red-hot, thrust them into his eye and blinded him.
The pain which the giant suffered made him groan hideously; he suddenly raised himself, and extended his arms on all sides to seize some one and sacrifice him to his rage; but fortunately we had time to get at some distance from him and throw ourselves on the ground in places where he could not set his feet on us. After having sought us in vain, he at last found the door, and went out bellowing with pain.
We quitted the palace immediately after the giant, and repaired to the shore, in that part where our rafts lay. We set them afloat, and waited till day-break to board them, in case we should see the giant approach with some guide to lead him to us; but we hoped that if he did not make his appearance by that time, and if his cries and groans which resounded through the air were discontinued, we might suppose him dead; and in that case we proposed remaining in the island till some safer conveyance should offer. But the sun had scarcely risen above the horizon when we perceived our cruel enemy, accompanied by two giants of nearly his own size, who conducted him and a great number of others, who walked before him at a considerable rate.
At this sight we ran precipitately to our rafts, and rowed away as fast as possible. The giants, seeing this, provided themselves with large stones, hastened to the shore, and even ventured to their middles into the sea, to throw them at us, which they did so adroitly as to sink all the rafts excepting that I was upon, so that myself and two companions were the only fortunate ones, the others being all drowned.
As we rowed with all our strength, we soon got out of reach of the stones.
When we were in the open sea, we became the sport of the winds and waves, and we passed that day and night in the most cruel suspense; but on the morrow we had the good fortune to be thrown on an island, where we landed with great joy. We found some excellent fruits, which served to re-establish our exhausted strength.
Towards night we went to sleep on the sea-shore; but were soon awakened by the noise which the scales of an immense serpent, long as a palm-tree, made on the ground. It was so near to us, that it devoured one of my companions, notwithstanding the efforts he made to extricate himself; for the serpent shook him several times, and then crushing him on the earth, quickly swallowed him.
My other comrade and myself immediately took to flight; and although we had reached some distance, we heard a noise, which made us suppose that the serpent was vomiting the bones of the unhappy man it had destroyed. On the following day we perceived our suspicions to have been well founded. “O God,” I then exclaimed, “to what are we exposed? Yesterday we were rejoicing at our escape from the cruelty of a giant and the fury of the waves, and to-day we are again terrified by a peril not less imminent.”
As we walked along, we remarked a large and high tree, on which we proposed to pass the following night, to be in safety. We eat some fruits as on the preceding day, and at the approach of night we climbed the tree. We soon heard the serpent, who came hissing to the foot of the tree; it raised itself against the trunk, and meeting with my companion, who was lower than I was, it swallowed him and retired.