exhilarated my spirits, that I began to sing and dance as I carried my burden.
The old man, perceiving the effect the juice had upon me, and that I carried him with more ease than before, made me a sign to give him some of it. I handed him the calabash, and the liquor pleasing his palate, he drank it off. There being a considerable quantity of it, he soon began to sing, and to move about from side to side in his seat upon my shoulders, and by degrees to loosen his legs from about me. Finding at length that he did not press me as before, I threw him upon the ground, where he lay without motion; I then took up a great stone and slew him.
I was extremely glad to be thus freed forever from this terrible burden. I now walked toward the beach, where I met the crew of a ship that had cast anchor, to take in water; they were surprised to see me, but more so at hearing the particulars of my adventures. “You fell,” said they, “into the hands of the old man of the sea, and are the first who ever escaped strangling by his malicious embraces. He never quitted those he had once made himself master of, till he had destroyed them, and he had made this island notorious by the number of men he has slain.” They took me with them to the captain, who received me with great kindness. He put out again to sea, and after some days’ sail, we arrived at the harbor of a great city, the houses of which overhung the water.
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