Now, the king had eighteen captives, which three times a week went to
fetch wood thirty miles from the town, and on a time he appointed me
for one of the eighteen, and we departed at eight of the clock in the
night; and upon the way, as we rode upon the camels, I demanded of one
of our company who did direct us the way: he said that there was a
Moor in our company which was our guide; and I demanded of them how
Tripolis and the wood bare one off the other, and he said, "East-north-
east and west-south-west." And at midnight, or thereabouts, as I was
riding upon my camel, I fell asleep, and the guide and all the rest
rode away from me, not thinking but I had been among them. When I
awoke, and, finding myself alone, I durst not call nor holloa, for fear
lest the wild Moors should hear me--because they hold this opinion,
that in killing a Christian they do God good service--and musing with
myself what were best for me to do: if I should return back to
Tripolis without any wood or company I should be most miserably used;
therefore, of the two evils, rather I had to go forth to the losing of
my life than to turn back and trust to their mercy, fearing to be used
as before I had seen others. For, understanding by some of my company
before how Tripolis and the said wood did lie one off another, by the
North Star I went forth at adventure, and, as God would have it, I came
right to the place where they were, even about an hour before day.
There altogether we rested, and gave our camels provender, and as soon
as the day appeared we rode all into the wood; and I, seeing no wood
there but a stick here and a stick there, about the bigness of a man's
arm, growing in the sand, it caused me to marvel how so many camels
should be loaded in that place. The wood was juniper; we needed no axe
nor edged tool to cut it, but plucked it up by strength of hands, roots
and all, which a man might easily do, and so gathered together a little
at one place, and so at another, and laded our camels, and came home
about seven of the clock that night following: because I fell lame and