The First Voyage

My father was a rich merchant. When he died, I was still young. He left behind a big wealth. However, I was an inexperienced thoughtless youth and spent all his wealth foolishly.

I returned to my senses only after the loss of all the wealth. I decided to sail for the Persian Gulf with some merchandise. Our group sailed from one country to another, selling the goods. One day, when we were on board, we saw a beautiful small green island. Just to have some fun, we all got down on that green patch. We were hungry and so we decided to cook some food there. As soon as we lit the fire for cooking, we got a jerk. The island was trembling.  It was no island. It was the back of a huge animal, which got disturbed when the fire was lit on his back. We were terrified to realize the fact. Everyone jumped into the sea to save his life. Most of them boarded the ship. But a few were not so fortunate. Before they could climb up, the captain started the ship hurriedly leaving behind a few sailors who were still struggling in the sea for their life. I was one among those strugglers. Fortunately, I caught hold of a big floating piece of wood and started floating with it.

I was being tossed by the frequent powerful sea waves. I kept on floating like this for a long time. At last, I was thrown on an island. I was dead tired and extremely hungry. But on the island, there was nothing to eat except for a few herbs. Due to the continuous struggle in the seawater, my limbs became stiff and refused to move. I somehow managed to crawl to get a few herbs. I ate them and quenched my thirst from a spring of the island.

As I walked further in this alien lace, I met a man. The man asked me for my whereabouts. I poured out my misfortune to him. The man felt pity to hear my sad story. He took me inside a cave. There were a number of men present. They were all slaves of the king of the island. Those men were kind. They served good food and wine to me and behaved well with me.

Later on, they produced me infront of the king Mihrjan who was the ruler of the island. I narrated my tale of sufferings and hardship to the king. The king was noble and kind person. He sympathized with me and appointed me as an officer on the port.

The natives of this small island were called ‘Indians’. Soon, I became friendly with them. A number of small islands were there near this island. These islands were under the kingship of king Mihrjan. During my stay, I witnessed a number of conspicuous sights. The seawater around the islands contained huge and horrible fishes. A few were hundred times bigger than the largest ship. Once I saw a fish that had her head like a bull. There, I witnessed many unimaginable wonders.

In this small island kingdom, ships from different parts of the world visited its port regularly. Everyday I would ask the visiting sailors about my city Baghdad, but no one knew about my native place. I longed to go back home.

One day, when I was standing on the port, I saw a ship approaching the port. It was the same ship, which had sailed further after leaving me behind, struggling in the sea water. When the captain of the ship saw me, he was immensely surprised to find me alive. He and the other crewmembers hugged me with happiness. The captain handed over my goods to me, which was left on the ship.

Among my goods, I chose a few valuable items and presented those to the kind king. In return, the king also gave me much more expensive presents. The ship stayed on the island for a few days. Meanwhile, I did a fabulous business there with my goods and earned good money.

At the time of departure, I went to meet the king. I thanked the king for his kind gesture and all his favours extended. The king again gave me many valuable farewell gifts. Finally I returned to my city Baghdad as a rich man.

Sindbad completed the tale of his first voyage. The poor porter Hindbad was listening to the amazing tale of Sindbad with all wonder. Sindbad the sailor then bade good buy to the poor porter and asked him to come on the next day to hear the tale of his new voyage. But before leaving, he presented Hindbad a purse-full of gold coins. The unexpected riches overjoyed Hindbad. He thanked his rich host and proceeded for home.