Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/28

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CHAPTER II.

In which the Author relates his extraordinary and unexpected Reception.

On recovering my senses, I found myself stretched nearly naked upon a rock, with the spray of the sea dashing over me, surrounded by an immense number of people whose speech was utterly unknown to me, a circumstance which added to my alarm, because my astronomical theorems being altogether obliterated through terror, and being well acquainted with the languages of most civilized nations, I concluded I had been cast amongst a savage people, from whom I could expect neither sympathy nor protection.—How then shall I attempt to describe my sensations upon seeing a person for whom every body made way upon his approach—whose dignified appearance marked him to be of a superior order to the rest, and who, upon hearing my bitter lamentations,addressed