Sinbad's First Voyage

In the middle of the endless sea, with no ship in sight and no strip of land, a young man clung tightly to a small piece of wood, his arms aching and spent. The waves lifted him up and dropped him down, one swell after another, and the sky above was a single silvery gray that stretched all the way to the horizon.

His name was Sinbad. Only a short while before, he had been standing firmly on the deck of a crowded merchant ship, never dreaming that one day he would drift alone on the open sea like this.

Many years later, in a splendid mansion in the heart of Baghdad, that same man sat telling this story to a guest who had just been invited into his home. By then he was a wealthy merchant, his hair and beard gone white. That day, Sinbad began to tell the story of his own life, one voyage each day. It is a tale that was later gathered into the collection known as the Thousand and One Nights. The story that day did not begin with the piece of wood drifting on the open sea. It began with a poor porter named Hindbad, standing out in the street under a scorching sun.

The sun beat down like fire. Hindbad carried a heavy bale on his shoulder, and halfway along his road he was worn out. He set his load down and sat to rest in the shade of a great mansion he had never seen before. From inside came the sound of strings and flutes, the warbling of birds, and the smell of fine food, and Hindbad could not help being curious. He asked a servant standing at the gate who the master of the house was. He learned that it was the home of the famous merchant Sinbad, a man who had sailed every sea the sun had ever shone upon.

Hearing that, Hindbad could not hold back his feelings. He raised his face to the sky and lamented aloud. They were both human beings, he said, so why were their fates so different? One lived in silk and velvet, while the other bent his back under heavy loads every day until he dropped, and still never had enough to eat. His words had barely ended when a servant came out and said that the master wished to invite him inside.

Hindbad stepped in trembling, afraid that his complaint had angered the master of the house. But Sinbad, a tall man with a dignified bearing and a silver beard, warmly invited him to sit right beside him and served him choice dishes with his own hands. Sinbad told Hindbad not to worry. He held nothing against the words he had just overheard through the window. He only wanted to make one thing clear. Nothing he had today had come easily. He had paid for it with long years of hardship on the open sea, through seven voyages full of danger. Sinbad decided to tell his guests his story that day, starting with the first voyage. He also sent his servants to carry the bale Hindbad had left in the street to the place where it was meant to go, so that the poor porter could sit and listen with an easy mind.

When he was young, Sinbad said, he had inherited a fair fortune from his parents. Being young and foolish, he spent it freely and lived for pleasure, until he saw that his wealth was slipping away and that soon nothing would be left. The thought of being old and poor made him resolve to change. He sold everything he still owned and pooled his money with a group of merchants. Together they fitted out a ship and set sail from the port of Basra to trade by sea.

The ship raised its sails and headed east, down the Persian Gulf, with the coast of Persia on one side and the rich lands of Arabia on the other. In the first days Sinbad was so seasick that he was worn out, but his body slowly grew used to the sea, and from then on he never knew seasickness again. The ship called at one island after another, buying, selling and trading goods, and the voyage went on calmly.

Then one day the wind died, and the ship came to a stop near a small strip of land, green as a meadow floating on the water. The captain said that anyone who wished could go ashore and rest. Sinbad and a few of his companions eagerly stepped onto the strange meadow. They strolled about for a while, then lit a fire and laid out the food they had brought for a meal.

Suddenly the ground under their feet trembled once, then shook harder, as if the whole meadow were turning over and waking up. From the ship came frantic shouts, urging everyone to come back at once. What they had taken for an island was only the enormous back of a whale, asleep in the middle of the ocean, and the heat of their fire had just woken it. Some jumped hurriedly into the small boat, and others leapt straight into the sea to swim back to the ship. Before Sinbad could move, the giant whale dove deep into the ocean. He was left floundering among the waves, and all he could do was grab hold of a piece of the firewood they had brought to light the fire.

On the ship, in all the confusion, everyone was busy hauling up the sails and pulling aboard those who had jumped into the water. No one noticed that Sinbad had been left behind. The ship spread its sails and cut away through the waves, and he could only cling to the small piece of wood in the middle of the vast sea.

And this is where Sinbad was at the very start of the story, alone in the middle of the endless sea, clinging to a piece of wood, with no ship in sight and no strip of land. All that day he drifted with the waves, pushed this way and shoved that way, his arms aching and spent, yet he never dared let go of the wood. When night fell, in the vast darkness, he nearly gave up hope, but he still held on to one last thread of it. Only when the morning light broke did he see that he had washed up against another island.

The cliffs of the island were high and sheer, but by luck there were tree roots gripping the rock, and he used them to climb up. At the top he collapsed onto the grass, so exhausted that he could not stir. Hungry, he searched and found a few wild greens he could eat, and a spring of clear water. Then he got to his feet and set out to explore the island.

After a while he came to a wide stretch of open ground, where a horse was tethered and grazing. While Sinbad was still wondering at it, he heard voices rising from under the ground. A man appeared and asked him why he was on the island. When Sinbad told him about the whale and his long drift, the man said he was one of the grooms of King Mihrage, the master of this island. Every year the grooms came to that open ground to graze the king's horses.

The groom led Sinbad down into a cave, where his companions were gathered, and they gave him plenty to eat and drink. They told Sinbad he was very lucky to have found them just in time. The next morning the whole group would go back to the capital. Without them to guide him, he could hardly have found the part of this strange island where people lived. The next morning they all set out, and as soon as Sinbad reached the capital, King Mihrage received him warmly.

After hearing Sinbad's story, the king ordered that he be well cared for and given everything he needed. The capital of King Mihrage lay right on the seashore, and ships from every part of the world stopped there to trade. So Sinbad sought out merchants from distant lands, hoping only to hear a little news of Baghdad, his home.

One day, Sinbad went down to the harbor for a stroll as usual and saw a ship that had just docked, with men carrying its cargo ashore. Looking closely at the bales, he was astonished to see his own name written on them. He recognized the captain too. It was the very man who had commanded the ship he sailed on during that fateful voyage.

Sinbad walked up and asked the captain whose bales those were. The captain answered at once. They were the goods of a merchant from Baghdad named Sinbad, who had sailed with him on the voyage that met the giant whale in the middle of the sea. In a low voice, he said that not everyone on the whale's back that day had made it home, and the unlucky merchant named Sinbad was one of those lost. He had kept the goods, meaning to hand them over to the dead man's family if he ever met them.

At this, Sinbad could keep quiet no longer. He said that he was the very merchant the captain had just spoken of, and that he was alive and well. The captain was shocked and flatly refused to believe him. He said this young man was only making up a story to seize goods that were not his. Sinbad patiently told him everything, from the moment he was left behind at sea and drifted clinging to the wood, to his rescue by the grooms of King Mihrage, and his welcome at the palace. Just then, a few merchants who knew him from before arrived at the harbor and recognized Sinbad at once. Only then did the captain believe him. He threw his arms around Sinbad, overjoyed that he had escaped, and gave all of his goods back to him.

Sinbad wanted to give the captain a few bales to show his gratitude, but the captain firmly refused. So Sinbad chose the most precious of his goods and brought them as a gift to King Mihrage. The king had already heard that Sinbad had lost everything, and he was surprised to see him arrive with gifts. When he understood what had happened, he gladly accepted them, and in return he gave Sinbad many other valuable treasures. After taking leave of the king, Sinbad traded all his goods for sandalwood, agarwood, camphor, nutmeg, cloves, pepper and ginger. Then he boarded that same old ship to sail home, trading more along the way.

When the ship docked at Basra, Sinbad had about 100,000 gold coins in its hold, a fortune big enough to change his whole life. His family welcomed him home with boundless joy, no less than his own joy at seeing them again. Sinbad bought land and built a fine mansion. He was determined to live a life of ease and to leave behind all the hardships he had known on the open sea.

Here Sinbad paused and signaled the musicians to strike up a new tune, and the feast in the mansion went on until evening. When Hindbad asked leave to go home, Sinbad gave him 100 gold coins in a small purse. He told him to come back the next day, when he would go on to tell him about the six remaining voyages. Hindbad went home still dazed, the purse of gold heavy in his hand. When he reached his house, his wife and children rushed out joyfully to meet him, and all of them silently gave thanks for the good fortune that had led him to such a kind man.