but Ibn Batūta, finding the cabin which had been assigned him much too small to contain his baggage and the multitude of slave girls, remained on shore for the purpose of bargaining for a larger vessel, and hearing divine service on the next day. During the night a tempest arose, which drove several of the junks upon the shore, where a great number of the crew and passengers perished. The ship which contained the imperial present weathered the storm until the morning, when our traveller, descending to the beach, beheld her tossed about upon the furious waves, while the officers of the emperor prostrated themselves upon the deck in despair. Presently she struck upon the rocks, and every soul on board perished. A part of the fleet, among the rest the vessel containing our traveller's property, sailed away, and of the fate of the greater number of them nothing was ever known. The whole of Ibn Batūta's wealth now consisted of a prostration carpet and ten dinars; but being told that in all probability the ship in which he had embarked his fortune had put into Kawlam, a city ten days' journey distant, he proceeded thither, but upon his arrival found that his hopes had been buoyed up in vain.
He was now in the most extraordinary dilemma in which he had ever been placed. Knowing the fierce and unreflecting character of the emperor, who, without weighing his motives, would condemn him for having remained on shore; and being too poor to remain where he was, he could not for some time determine how to act. At length, however, he resolved to visit the court of Jemaleddin, king of Hinaur, who received him kindly, and allowed him to become reader to the royal mosque. Shortly afterward, having been encouraged thereto by a favourable omen, obtained from a sentence of the Koran, he accompanied Jemaleddin in an expedition against the island of Sindibur, which was subdued and taken possession of. To console Ibn Batūta
