تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.102.10

13.102.10

Then we came upon rocks on which the ship nearly broke apart; then we entered a shallow sea and the ship ran aground. We saw death before our eyes; the people threw overboard what they had with them and bade one another farewell. We cut down the ship's mast and threw it overboard, and the sailors made a raft of timber. There were two parasangs between us and the land. I wanted to go down onto the raft. I had two slave-girls and two of my companions, and they said: “Will you go down and leave us?” So I preferred them to myself and said: “You two go down, with the slave-girl whom I love.” The slave-girl said: “I am a good swimmer; I will hold on to one of the raft's ropes and swim with them.” So my two companions went down—one of them Muḥammad b. Farḥān al-Tawzarī, the other an Egyptian—and the slave-girl with them, while the other swam. The sailors tied ropes to the raft and swam with it. I put with them what I valued most of my goods, jewels and ambergris, and they reached the land safely, because the wind was helping them.